In this article, OPORA analyzed how popular advertising is on social media around the world and whether the popularity of advertising in a particular country can be related to its price.

Although 2021 did not show to Ukrainians such bright election campaigns as 2019 and 2020, last year, Ukrainian politicians and parties were active on social media, too. OPORA analyzed key indicators of Facebook advertising campaigns and found out which political forces are already preparing for the upcoming elections, and those that have increased their activity levels on this social media in the last 12 months.

During the first summer month, the pages of Ukrainian politicians and parties, and the accounts related to politics, shared 11,257 promoted posts. The total investment into promotion of political content was from USD 209,126 to 317,234*. Over the same period of the previous year, according to Facebook Ad Library Report, all numbers were lower: the political PR with the help of Facebook ads cost from USD 178,933 to 273,973. Although the political ads labelling rules have been introduced by Fac...

The network of 19 pages, at least 55 alleged bots bombarded Dnipro voters during the 2020 local elections campaigns, either supporting Borys Filatov and the “Proposition” party or discrediting his political rival Zahid Krasnov.

According to OPORA, in February, * 2021, the amounts spent for promotion of political ads on Facebook ranged from USD 168,780 to 265,980**. Paid ads of the social media were used by 1,205 pages, having promoted 9,913 posts. Over 6.5% of them were posted against the rules of the social media (they did not include the marking). Setting the results against the monitoring of Facebook political ads from last February, we can see all parameters growing. Back in that period, Facebook and Instagr...

Hardly have the TV screens cooled down when the channels banned by the Presidential Decree such as 112, ZIK and NEWSONE shifted to other broadcasting platforms. In addition to traditional methods, such as going on air on YouTube and posting news on their websites, the media resorted to social media they hardly used before to engage with their audiences. In this coverage, OPORA is trying to explore into how the broadcasting ban impacted their activity on Facebook, and whether the ban for broad...

OPORA analyzed the political ads in the Ukrainian segment of Facebook in January* 2021 and concluded that in this month the content was promoted by 1,054 pages that invested into 7,938 posts from USD 151,076 to 231,563**.

Social media are becoming key platforms for communication between politicians and society. However, in addition to the option to complain about the bad roads directly to the people’s deputy on the Facebook messenger, social media also have a huge capacity to indirectly influence public opinion. Read below about the two most common tools to produce the impact – the networks of pages and bots .

Місцеві вибори 2020 року стали для українського політичного середовища справжнім викликом. Окрім зміни виборчої системи та обмежень, введених через пандемію COVID-19, вибори запам’ятаються величезними сумами, які партії та кандидати витрачали на власну агітацію в Інтернеті. Більше того рекламна кампанія деяких партій і політиків у соціальних мережах спостерігалась і у так звані “дні тиші” – період часу, коли поширення будь-якої агітації заборонене.