Sheffield City Region Mayoral Combined Authority 'spent thousands on Facebook ads'

An organisation led by Sheffield City Region Mayor Dan Jarvis MBE spent thousands of pounds on adverts on Facebook in less than a year, data analysis has revealed.
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The Sheffield City Region Mayoral Combined Authority - which includes Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster councils as members and is chaired by Mr Jarvis, spent more than £2000 on promotions on the site since January.

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The adverts cover a wide range of issues from promoting the mayor's vision for improving transport in the region to how Mr Jarvis plans to tackle homelessness.

Sheffield City Mayor Dan Jarvis.Sheffield City Mayor Dan Jarvis.
Sheffield City Mayor Dan Jarvis.
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Under new rules Facebook introduced in October 2018, anyone placing a political advert must declare who paid for it.

Our investigation identified one ad in which the Combined Authority failed to run this disclaimer.

The promotion in question was about the organisation submitting bids of £10m in Active Travel schemes to the Department for Transport to improve local transport and was accompanied with a picture of Mr Jarvis MP riding a bike.

The ad ran between January 7 and 14 this year and cost £50. Facebook said it was viewed between 10, 000 and 50, 000 times before they managed to remove it.

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In a statement, the Combined Authority admitted that the ad “inadvertently ran without a disclaimer declaring how that advert was funded.”

The organisation added that all the ads run since have included disclaimers explaining they have been paid for by the Combined Authority.

With 40 million users in the UK alone, Facebook is increasingly seen by many politicians and groups as an effective way of reaching constituents.

In the last year around £120,000 was spent on promotions for elected mayors and mayoral candidates nationally.

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There is no suggestion that any of the adverts have been deliberate attempts to deceive constituents.

But with a general election looking likely in the coming months, campaigners have questioned the transparency of the system.

The Open Rights Group, which campaigns for internet users’ digital rights, said social media has become a “key battleground for political campaigns.”

Its data and democracy officer, Pascal Crowe, said: “It is currently too easy to field a political advert on Facebook without revealing who is paying for that ad.”

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A spokesperson for Sheffield City Region Mayoral Combined Authority said: “Social media is a cost-effective way of reaching people from all our region’s communities, through the media channels that we know they are most likely to use.

“Such adverts are also far cheaper, and therefore a better use of public money, than advertising through traditional means such as in newspapers, on the radio or on billboards.”

They added the organisation spends a 'fraction of the advertising cost of many other local authorities and combined authorities.'

A spokesperson for Facebook said: "Our industry-leading tools are making it easier to see all political ads on our platforms, and archives them for seven years in Facebook's Ad Library.”

A Government spokesperson accepted there should be ‘greater transparency in political advertising’ and pledged to introduce the ‘requirement for digital election material to be clearly branded.’