The UK’s Channel 4 News obtained a large data cache revealing how Donald Trump‘s 2016 campaign created a digital strategy to deter at least 3.5 million African-Americans from showing up at the polls. The database was compiled by Trump’s digital team and contained information on almost 200 million Americans spread over 5000 files.
“In 16 key battleground states, millions of Americans were separated by an algorithm into one of eight categories, so they could then be targeted with tailored ads on Facebook and other platforms,” according to Channel 4. Three-and-a-half million African-Americans were labeled as “deterrence,” a designation which a campaign data scientist has described as people you “hope don’t show up to vote.” Black voters were disproportionately represented in the “deterrence” category. For instance, Black people represent 32% of Georgia’s population, yet made up 61% of the ‘deterrence’ category. Similar disparities were evident in other states, such as North Carolina and Wisconsin.
Voter suppression has long been a tactic used specifically to target Black voters. Historically, it was poll taxes, then Jim Crow laws in the early 1920s through the 1960s. Yet Black Americans continue to disproportionately encounter suppression and barriers to voting across the country. On Sunday, the Washington Post editorial board blasted Florida Republicans for passing “a law requiring former felons to repay outstanding legal debts, knowing full well that most of these people—mainly Black and Latino—don’t have the financial means.”
Brad Parscale, who led Trump’s 2016 digital team, has credited Facebook with helping win the presidency and the social media platform appears integral to the 2020 campaign’s reelection strategy. The use of targeted ads on social media, specifically Facebook, can drive a campaign’s message—and potentially push misinformation—during an election year. Both Twitter and Facebook have recently announced reforms they hope will quell the spread of conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated voting information. The policy changes have been met with both praise and skepticism. Trump, who has been on a tweeting spree since the New York Times’ Sunday tax blockbuster, has not yet commented on the Channel 4 report. He did, however, write,“The ballots being returned to states cannot be accurately counted. Many things are already going very wrong!” Twitter flagged that baseless claim and pointed users to learning “how voting by mail is safe and secure.”
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