Regulating digital advertising — the epitome of internet regulation
Digital advertising birthed the early commercialisation of the Internet. The business model of free to a wide range of users and chargeable to advertisers laid a solid economic foundation for the rapid development of the Internet industry. From Google in the US to Tencent in China, the advertising business has provided an effective way for internet companies to achieve profitability and has laid the foundation for their growth. According to WARC’s 2020–2021 Global Advertising Industry Status Trend Report, the online advertising market will account for approximately 54.4% of global advertising spending in 2020, totalling US$303.3 billion. It shows that digital advertising remains an important part of Internet companies’ revenues until now.
The Internet has broken down the barriers between traditional media and has made it easier for people to access all kinds of information. The lack of effective regulatory policies on internet platforms has resulted in a wide range of advertisements, some of which contain sexual or violent messages. According to a report by the CS Mott Children’s Hospital of Michigan Medicine and Common Sense Media, one in five advertisements viewed by children under the age of eight are inappropriate because they contain violent and sexual themes. Traditional film and television production media have age restrictions on the television productions they show, which goes some way to preventing children from seeing inappropriate content. Internet platforms have attempted to put in place regulations to restrict users, for example, the Chinese Internet industry has launched the ‘Youth Mode System’ in 2019, which will regulate the online behaviour of minors in terms of hours of use, duration, functionality and content. However, given the very large base of Internet users. These regulations also do not accurately distinguish the true age of users across the entire user base, which in turn affects the practical effect of circumventing anachronistic content for specific users.
Can adults be completely protected from internet advertising? The answer is no. Internet Big Data collects and records data on every user, and every click we make can potentially compromise our privacy. Because every website you ever visit may have cookies embedded in your web browser, every click you make tells the website what information is valuable in your eyes and what ads should be placed with you. The individual user does not have the same security information as a digital platform as large as the internet (Zuiderveen Borgesius, 2015). If internet platforms take advantage of their dominant position, they can easily compromise their users (Guibault et al., 2013). No one who uses the Internet is immune to this.
In the last few years, the shift toward state intervention in the digital sphere is beginning to accelerate globally. Many governments have proposed new policies, which in part respond to legitimate attempts to mitigate online harm, control data misuse or end manipulative market practices. However, it has also attracted controversy, with some arguing that requiring companies to remove content and share personal data with the authorities is a huge loss to freedom of expression, privacy and public accountability. Ben Thompson believes that the proposals and controversies surrounding the regulation of the Internet revolve around three main areas: firstly, what is the scope of the regulation and who is the regulator? Secondly, what are the effective ways to monitor content? Thirdly, how can privacy, competition and freedom of expression be ensured? He has proposed a regulatory framework for the Internet in which freedom of expression needs to be guaranteed at the infrastructure level, with the marketplace regulating platform providers, and regulation limited to businesses that profit primarily through advertising, so they are not subject to traditional content market pressures.
Whether it is Chinese internet companies monitoring themselves at the request of the government, or Western government policies such as the US General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The endpoint of all these policies is the same: to protect the privacy of Internet users and the proper understanding and use of the Internet by the next generation as far as possible. However, as the results so far show, it is still a long journey. How can the interests of all parties be balanced? How can the public’s freedom of expression be protected to the greatest extent possible? Are there boundaries to freedom of expression, etc.? These questions have not really been addressed. In fact, the regulation of digital advertising is only a microcosm of the regulation of the Internet. How to regulate the Internet in a proper or balanced manner is a question that needs to be reconsidered by the government, users and platforms alike.
Get Xiaotong’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
REFERENCE
Guibault, L., N. Helberger, B. van der Sloot, M.B.M. Loos, C. Mak, and L. Pessers. 2013. Digital Consumers and the Law. Towards a Cohesive European Framework. Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International.
Zuiderveen Borgesius, F.J. 2015. Improving Privacy Protection in the Area of Behavioural Targeting. Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International.
