Donald Trump ads will take over YouTube homepage on election day

Trump’s reelection campaign purchased YouTube’s masthead space for early November


Tech Desk February 24, 2020
PHOTO: Reuters

YouTube will be advertising only Donald Trump just prior to the US presidential election and on Election Day, reports Bloomberg.

The video platform’s homepage will feature ads in support of Donald Trump’s reelection campaign.

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Sources revealed to Bloomberg that Trump’s reelection campaign purchased YouTube’s masthead space for early November, including November 3; election day. The deal guarantees Trump will be featured most prominently in days voters in the US head to the polls.

About two-thirds of American adults say they used the video service last year, according to the Pew Research Center. That’s even more than those who went to Facebook.

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YouTube has enormous reach. Former President Barack Obama did the same on Election Day in 2012, according to Bloomberg.  It’s not yet known how much Trump’s reelection campaign paid for the ad space, but it can cost campaigns more than $1 million a day.

However, regulators are only intensifying their scrutiny of Silicon Valley. Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai were hauled in front of Congress in 2018 to testify about their platforms’ influence reports Reuters.

In November, Google tightened its policy prohibiting micro-targeting of political advertising. Twitter on the other hand, completely abandoned the category.

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