Skepticism, sarcasm, & savagery: social media calls to #CancelStudentDebt

Engagement on social media posts across several platforms shows a desire for White House action on the issue

During the 2020 Presidential election, then-candidate Biden promised to cancel a minimum of $10,000 of student loan debt per borrower. Although student loan repayments have remained on pause throughout the pandemic, that promise of debt forgiveness or cancellation has gone unfulfilled. If that remains the case, it could have enormous consequences for this November’s midterm elections.

With reports out this week that some action on the issue could be coming soon(!) We looked at how the conversation about student loan forgiveness has been playing out on sites like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok this year. But first…

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By the numbers

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

For the third week in a row, tech industry groups led spending on Facebook + Instagram political ads. A quick tally shows they’ve spent at least $4.5 million on these ads in the past 90 days. 

On Sunday, the Utah Democratic Party took an extraordinary step in voting to not run its own candidate to challenge far-right, anti-democratic Sen. Mike Lee this fall, and instead provide implicit support to independent candidate Evan McMullin. The move means that Republicans may now have to spend resources defending a seat in Utah - as McMullin could actually win this thing. Immediately following Sunday’s news, McMullin’s campaign launched new Facebook ads highlighting the move as Lee ran creative slamming his opponent. FWIW, McMullin has outspent Lee on Facebook over the past 90 days.

Pro-Israel political group AIPAC, which financially supports January 6th insurrectionists in Congress, has created a new PAC to support centrist Democrats and attack progressives. Here’s the kicker: their ads use lines like "stop Republican attacks on our rights." 

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

2022 midterm candidate spending on Google and YouTube advertising has been on the increase. One new top spender on the platform is Senator John Kennedy (R-LA), who’s running for re-election in what’s considered a safe seat. His campaign is spending big on fundraising ads like this one below, with scripts that are as folksy as they are completely unhinged:

In terms of other Senate campaign digital spending, Democrats remain far ahead. 

Lastly, here are the top political ad spenders on Snapchat so far this year:

Looking for full midterm digital spending data? We provide complete Senate, Gubernatorial, and House race numbers just for paying subscribers.

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… Happening elsewhere online:

• For several days this week, Trump-backed social media platform “Truth Social” was the most-downloaded free app in Apple’s app store. 

• Elon Musk bought Twitter, and former Trump campaign Digital Director Gary Coby is already back on the platform. He was suspended after attempting to let Trump use his personal account post-Jan 6th. We saw other reports that there was an organic movement of conservative users on the platform

• The Democratic Governors Association has already raised triple the amount of online cash than it did at this point in 2018. In this week’s Campaigner newsletter, we spoke with DGA Digital Director Laura Carlson to hear how it's going. 

• On Wednesday, progressive tech group Higher Ground Labs announced its latest cohort of companies that have joined its accelerator program. Check them out here. 

• Our friends at the Real Facebook Oversight Board released their “Quarterly Harms Report,” detailing several ways that Meta failed to prevent bad actors from abusing their platform in Q1 2022. It's worth a read.

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Skepticism, sarcasm, & savagery: social media calls to #CancelStudentDebt

During the 2020 Presidential election, then-candidate Biden promised to cancel a minimum of $10,000 of student loan debt per borrower. That promise remains unfulfilled - and if that remains the case, it could have big consequences for this November’s midterm elections. With reports this week that action on the issue could be coming soon (!) We looked at how the conversation about student loan forgiveness has been playing out on social media this year…