New Transparency International report says online political advertising is now growing rapidly around the world, and will soon be the biggest media expenditure for political campaigns in the US and UK. It therefore proposed five new regulations to guide online political campaigns in future.

The report published on its website on Thursday estimated over $3 billion to have been spent on online ads in the 2020 U.S. general election.

A review by the German non-governmental organisation from the Czech Republic, Lithuania, and New Zealand shows that transparency policies often fall short and leave loopholes that can be used to hide financing of political advertising.

Jorge Valladares, research and policy expert to the organisation, said online advertising has the potential to radically level the political playing field, giving a new or less affluent politicians and groups a chance to be heard.

Mr. Valladares noted that unless the governments and platforms themselves update regulatory frameworks soon, online advertising could open the floodgates to obscure political financing, disinformation, and polarised public debate.

“To protect democracies, regulations must hold platforms accountable for the authenticity of political messaging online, require stricter financial transparency, and restrict micro-targeting to its minimum,” said Mr. Valladares

The organisation recommended global five ways to regulate online political advertising such as the bringing of legal regulation into the digital era to define responsibilities over content, financing, and placement of online ads.

Also recommended is the ensuring of authentic political messages, which says only legally authorised advertisers should place political ads.

” Political actors must conduct an online activity through official accounts in their own name and register them with oversight agencies. Online platforms must verify their identity”, Transparency International recommended.

Others include, “voters must be able to easily distinguish paid and user-generated content” as well as platforms must publicly disclose information at both ad and aggregated levels, with infringements penalised.

“Regulators, platforms, and advertisers must restrict political ad micro-targeting to basic geographical criteria. Further safeguards for democratic public debate are needed. Users’ meaningful consent to the collection and commercialisation of their personal information must correspond to a genuine understanding of the economic and political value of their choice.”