Source · Select Committees · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 21
21
Acknowledged
Paragraph: 84
Digital technology is allowing more parties, campaigners, and voters than ever to participate in political...
Conclusion
Digital technology is allowing more parties, campaigners, and voters than ever to participate in political debate. While we view this as a positive step for democracy, we must recognise that it has created a more complex regulatory environment for the Electoral Commission. The framework for regulating political campaign spending during elections and referendums has not kept pace with the challenges presented by the growth of social media, targeted advertising using big data, and viral online marketing campaigns. We are concerned by the fact a significant amount of transparency for digital campaigning comes from voluntary initiatives by social media platforms to create “advert libraries” and that there is no standard definition of a political advert.
Government Response Summary
The Government acknowledges the importance of cooperation between national regulatory authorities and welcomes the steps taken by social media companies to create “advert libraries” and institute advert labelling on political advertising but does not propose mandating advert libraries.
Paragraph Reference:
84
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
Cooperation between national regulatory authorities is essential to ensuring consistency, clarity and protection for UK users as well as industry in the digital space. The Government agrees that it is important that the Electoral Commission can co-operate with other regulators when it comes to the enforcement of political finance rules. The Electoral Commission has said that it already has a power to share information that relates to ensuring compliance with electoral law with relevant bodies; and where it has reasonable grounds to suspect that a person has committed an offence or contravened any restriction or other requirement under PPERA, it can compel the provision from any person of documents, information or explanations that the Commission reasonably requires to investigate. Further, the Commission has said that it can also share information relating to breaches of data protection with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).7 The Government welcomes the steps taken by the Electoral Commission to increase regulatory dialogue and cooperation with other relevant regulators, such as the ICO and Ofcom, on matters related to political advertising. The Government remains committed to ensuring effective cooperation between the Electoral Commission and other regulators in the digital space and continues to keep the need for any additional powers for information sharing under review. The Government is also legislating via the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill to enhance data sharing between Companies House and public authorities, including the Electoral Commission. The Government’s intention is to ensure that Ofcom has the powers it needs as the online regulator. Ofcom has strong existing relationships with other regulators, such as the Information Commissioner’s Office, including through the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DRCF). This includes work to ensure join-up across new regulatory regimes, such as the forthcoming publication of a joint statement on the interactions between the online safety and privacy regimes. The DRCF, in turn, engages comprehensively with other regulators, including the Electoral Commission, via quarterly roundtables to ensure a coherent regulatory approach. Where appropriate and proportionate, the Government has used legislative measures to strengthen cooperation between regulators. This is something we are doing in the Online Safety Bill by ensuring Ofcom can effectively share information with other regulators and by requiring Ofcom to consult with the ICO on codes of practice and when issuing guidance that could have a privacy impact. On the regulation of political advertising, the Government welcomes the steps taken by social media companies to create “advert libraries” and institute advert labelling on political advertising. We do not currently propose mandating advert libraries or the criteria applying to such libraries when existing initiatives already provide the public with transparency in this area.