Five stories that defined digital politics in 2022

From Facebook’s step away from politics to TikTok’s meteoric rise, this year was a wild ride

From a changing social media ecosystem to astroturf campaigns and digital spending disparities, 2022 was a wild year at the intersection of politics and the internet. In this week’s FWIW, I’ll share five digital stories that I believe had the greatest impact on our politics this year. 

But first… 

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By the numbers

FWIW, here were the top-spending political advertisers on Facebook + Instagram last week:

Raphael Warnock’s campaign was again the top spender on Facebook + Instagram last week, spending heavily on digital advertising in a final push before his decisive runoff election victory on Tuesday night. If you haven’t seen it already, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is up with a must-read story about Adam Magnus, “the man behind Warnock’s ads.” 

Last week, the second-largest political advertiser on those platforms nationwide was conservative Hillsdale College, which has spent millions of dollars on digital ads in 2022 to build a marketing pipeline for their online “courses.” One of their recent ads states that supporters of President Biden think the constitution “should be completely rewritten.” 🙃

The 2024 Republican presidential primary has begun, with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo targeting the early-nominating states with Facebook ads last week. Noem’s ads attacked TikTok’s Chinese ties, while Pompeo’s ads decried a “woke military.”

Meanwhile, here were the top political advertisers on Google platforms last week, including YouTube:

Political advertisers spent $3.8 million on Google and YouTube ads last week, 80% of which was spent targeting voters in Georgia. Every group in the above chart was focused on the Georgia runoff election, with Warnock receiving some outside support from the state Democratic Party, Planned Parenthood, BLACK PAC, and Fair Fight. 

Political campaigns and organizations in the U.S. have spent over $10.5 million on Snapchat ads in 2022. Here are the top political advertisers on Snapchat so far this year:

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From around the internet

• According to POLITICO, Herschel Walker’s wife had exclusive control over his Twitter account. Yikes.

• The FEC passed a new rule requiring disclaimers on digital political ads. It’s unclear how much this will impact the industry, as many digital platforms like Facebook already require disclaimers to be displayed. Also notable: the language used in the policy change likely excludes paid promotions and influencer partnerships.  

• TikTok published its annual “Year on TikTok” report detailing the top-performing content and trends on the platform this year. Political TikToks, including Dr. Oz’ crudites video, didn’t make the cut.  

• Is Instagram over? Kate Lindsay at The Atlantic writes that “​​Gen Z’s relationship with Instagram is much like millennials’ relationship with Facebook: Begrudgingly necessary…”

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Five stories that defined digital politics in 2022

From a changing social media ecosystem to astroturf campaigns and digital spending disparities, 2022 was a wild year at the intersection of politics and the internet. These were the top five digital stories that I believe had the greatest impact on our politics:

1. Facebook tries to leave news & politics in the dust

In 2020, Facebook was a terrifyingly powerful distribution channel for right-wing misinformation and conservative outrage bait. This cycle, the power of conservative mega-pages has been greatly diminished, likely due to tweaks in the platform’s algorithm.

As Meta attempts to fend off an existential threat from competitor TikTok, the company has tried to emphasize vertical video and addictive content discovery over news and politics. The company killed its short-lived newsletter product and terminated financial partnerships with news publishers. Political campaigns - with a few exceptions - received fewer likes, shares, and comments on their posts than ever before. That’s going to have a colossal impact on how political campaigns reach voters online moving forward.

2. Republicans’ digital disappearing act

Donald Trump’s campaigns in 2016 and 2020 dragged the Republican Party into the digital age by utilizing digital marketing best practices for fundraising and supporter engagement. With Trump (temporarily) out of sight, Republicans reverted to old-school, TV-focused campaigning that contributed to disastrous losses on Election Day.