←

Digital presence of governements

Is governement action a product that should be advertised for online ? - 20th October 2023

The Web isn't free. We need electricity, hosting, developers, maintainers, writers, content creators, etc. The Web is based on content, and as "Content is King" how publish it for free ? Ads. To provide a website or content for free, you have to rely on digital advertising. There are other ways of course, like Patron, but for content creation (cc) it is the main path leading to a sustainable income. As we consume more and more online content, we consume more and more ads. As a reminder, Youtube, revenue from ads is declining. Oh, hey, maybe it's why they enforce ads to everyone, even if creator doesn't activate them since 2021. So, Youtube and social media platforms, forces advertisings on us to provide an income for itself. And, last time I viewed a video without an ad blocker, I stubled upon a Governement advertisement. This is out topic today !

Since I'm in France, I've seen a French Governement ad. Well, they're not ad, as a matter of speach, they are information. We will not buy any product or service but it is informing people about an event or some news. It raised a question in my mind, how does a Governement communicate with its population ? As this report from 2021 mention that there is a crisis in trusting both governement and information and this phrase dictates the path to follow pretty well :

Historically, traditional media were the main avenue for citizens to hear from and about their governments. In many parts of the world today, evening news and front-page headlines have lost some of their primacy in shaping public debates to a constellation of alternative voices across social media feeds, podcasts and online videos. :

Moreover, it follows with :

the OECD report Public Communication: the Global Context and the Way Forward [...] demonstrates that many governments are often missing the opportunity to effectively communicate and engage with their citizens.

So the French governement is trying to reach a new audience on social media and content creation platforms. But, it's important to note that information consumption in France is still diverse, and we have in the top 10 :

It is in age groups the nuance is hiding, another report points out that people less than 44 are more and more prone to use online sources of information rather than TV, written newspapers or radio.

We can understand that, traditionally, governements used TV and Newspapers to communicate. But it is not the way a part of the population consumes information anymore. Governements need a new way of communicating, hence their social media accounts creations and experimentations. Currently, the use of social media at national governements doesn't follow a dedicated strategy. They mostly want to improve public communication, engage stakeholders in public governance processes and improve public service delivery. This is why, in France, we have experimentations such as directed governement ads for social aids. This is not propaganda, or proselytism. This is information, and a new way for a Governement to communicate with its citizens. There still is a red line to not cross. One for a governement to use advertising to reach for people to influence their opinions.

And this is what Israel just did recently. The Ministery of Foreign Affairs placed an advertisement on youtube. The purpose of this video is to inform the world of what happend or even rally them to its grief. I would like to point out, that it can also be taken as a justification from Israeli actions against Gaza necessary in the name of "protect[ing] [their] citizens against these barbaric terrorists". The fact that they paid to show the world the tragedy that the armed branch of Hamas perpetrated on Saturday the 7th of October 2023, while hiding the part where Israel and Palestine have a conflict, since, well... since the creation of the State of Israel 75 years ago is devious. It is war propaganda. And the problem is that, two of the most viewed content creation and social media are accepting money from beligerents to spread war messages. The fact that the USA, where those platforms are based, and Israel are linked since the begining may help enlightening why.

To conclude, I would like to reflect on two things. One, is that we will most likely see more and more from governements online. And while information is accessible to anyone at any time the issue is that we do not have at the moment any way to restrain misinformation. Some solutions have emerged, like Twitter community notes, but remain centralized and in the hand of those products. Second, letting governements at war, spread propaganda on those platforms is hiddeous and should not be possible, but since there is a fine line between propaganda and governement information, who has the right to say which is what ? And how can we defend ourself against it ?