How Google is supporting the upcoming Australian federal election
Australians will soon head to the polls to elect the 47th Parliament of Australia. To support the democratic process, Google has been rolling out products and programs to help people participate and stay informed, protect election integrity, and campaigns manage their digital presence.
Tackling misinformation and Google’s platforms
Google is working with campaigners, candidates, elected officials, political parties, and civil society to help everyone understand digital best practices and their responsibilities through Google Ad policies and YouTube Community Guidelines. The platform has policies governing misinformation — including election misinformation, COVID-19 medical misinformation, and vaccine misinformation — across our platforms.
On YouTube, over the past five years Google has invested heavily in a framework its calls the 4Rs of Responsibility. Using a combination of machine learning and people, the platform removes violative content quickly, raises up authoritative sources, and reduces the spread of problematic content.
For Google Ads, the platform has introduced new verification requirements and are also applying restricted targeting for election ads in Australia. Only geographic location (except radius targeting), age, gender, contextual targeting options such as ad placements, topics, keywords against sites, apps, pages and videos, are permitted. All other types of targeting are not allowed for use in election ads.
People can report content they believe violates our policies, including on advertising and misinformation here. Legal complaints should be lodged at g.co/legal.
Helping voters better understand the political advertising they see
To give Australians more information about paid election ads they see across Google’s platforms, Google requires that any ad which mentions a political party, candidate or current officeholder for the House of Representatives or the Senate, is included in our new political advertising transparency report, and that the advertiser is verified.
The launch of the political advertising transparency report in Australia in 2021 follows its introduction in the United States, the EU and UK, New Zealand, India, Israel and Taiwan. It’s designed to help people the Australian community. More information about how the transparency report works and how to use the data is available in these FAQs.
Google also just announced globally that in the coming months, the platform will launch an updated version of our report, featuring a new user-interface and tools for accessing and sorting information about election ads and advertisers. This update will include a more detailed breakdown of advertiser data — giving users greater insight into ad spending and impressions — as well as new visualisation features for filtering data around targeting, location, and ad formats.
Protecting election information online
Google is working with campaigns, elections officials, journalists and global organisations to ensure the security of the online platforms that they use. The Advanced Protection Program, our strongest level of account security for those who need it, is available at no charge, as is Project Shield, a free service that uses Google technology to protect news sites and free expression from DDoS attacks on the web.
To further help tackle misinformation and strengthen fact-checking capabilities, the Google News Lab is working alongside Australian news organisations and associations in many ways. Google is collaborating with Australian Associated Press (AAP) to provide and translate fact-checks to 40 culturally and linguistically diverse publications, including Mandarin, Vietnamese and Arabic languages.
The platform is also supporting First Draft, based at the University of Technology Sydney’s Centre for Media Transition, to build a coalition of media organisations to detect and report disinformation.
More than 100 journalists and members of community groups have already taken part in specialist training led by industry experts. Journalists can access free digital verification workshops, and equip themselves with a range of tools and techniques to help them cover the election on our website.
Google said it continues to think about elections and how it can further support democratic processes around the world, including by bringing more transparency to political advertising online, helping connect people to useful and relevant election-related information, and working to protect election information online.
Getting voters the information they need
Google said it knows that in the lead up to elections, people need useful and relevant information to help them navigate the electoral process. Across the world it’s focused on ensuring Google Search provides timely and accurate information that helps people find, understand and participate in the electoral process — like how to enroll and where to vote. Google said it will also be working with broadcasters to bring their coverage of election night to more audiences on YouTube. understand who is paying for political ads, how much they are spending, who the ads are being targeted to, and what the ad content is.
Information is displayed in a searchable ads library, which is updated daily with a 3-4 day lag to enable all relevant information to be processed. Our intention is to make it as useful and accessible as possible to the Australian community. More information about how the transparency report works and how to use the data is available in these FAQs.
Google has just announced globally that in the coming months, it will launch an updated version of our report, featuring a new user-interface and tools for accessing and sorting information about election ads and advertisers. This update will include a more detailed breakdown of advertiser data — giving users greater insight into ad spending and impressions — as well as new visualisation features for filtering data around targeting, location, and ad formats.
Protecting election information online
Google will be working with campaigns, elections officials, journalists and global organisations to ensure the security of the online platforms that they use. The Advanced Protection Program, our strongest level of account security for those who need it, is available at no charge, as is Project Shield, a free service that uses Google technology to protect news sites and free expression from DDoS attacks on the web.
To further help tackle misinformation and strengthen fact-checking capabilities, the Google News Lab is working alongside Australian news organisations and associations in many ways. The platform will be collaborating with Australian Associated Press (AAP) to provide and translate fact-checks to 40 culturally and linguistically diverse publications, including Mandarin, Vietnamese and Arabic languages.
Google said it will also be supporting First Draft, based at the University of Technology Sydney’s Centre for Media Transition, to build a coalition of media organisations to detect and report disinformation. More than 100 journalists and members of community groups have already taken part in specialist training led by industry experts. Journalists can access free digital verification workshops, and equip themselves with a range of tools and techniques to help them cover the election on our website.
Google said it will continue to think about elections and how it can further support democratic processes around the world, including by bringing more transparency to political advertising online, helping connect people to useful and relevant election-related information, and working to protect election information online.
Getting voters the information they need
Google said it knows that in the lead up to elections, people need useful and relevant information to help them navigate the electoral process. Across the world it’s focused on ensuring Google Search provides timely and accurate information that helps people find, understand and participate in the electoral process — like how to enroll and where to vote. The platform will also be working with broadcasters to bring their coverage of election night to more audiences on YouTube.
On this week’s Mumbrellacast, Kalila Welch and Anna Macdonald join host Calum Jaspan to discuss misinformation and political spend in the imminent federal election, plus conversations with Tim Wood on storytelling in marketing, and the IMAA’s Sam Buchanan on the two-year-old indie industry body.
Episode breakdown
- The federal election is imminent, how is misinformation going to be combatted? Plus a look at political media spending (01:22)
- Interview with brand expert, Tim Wood (16:38)
- Interview with Sam Buchanan of the IMAA (26:25)
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topics
7th Parliament of Australia
Australian Federal Election
federal election
Google
Google Ad policies
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