INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Commons vote on it, figures released by the US social media giant reveal.Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn branded it a "waste of public money" in
the House of Commons on Tuesday.The overall spend on social media adverts by the government is likely to be far higher, however.Ads were
also bought on Twitter, LinkedIn and Google, but neither the companies nor the government would tell the TheIndianSubcontinent how much
money was spent.Prime Minister Theresa May called off Tuesday's crucial vote on her Brexit deal so she can go back to Brussels and ask for
changes to it, admitting the deal "would be rejected by a significant margin" if MPs voted on it
videos about the Brexit deal between December 2 and 8."There were days when both the prime minister and I served as local councillors
Had we spent public money in that way we would have been surcharged for a waste of public money without proper approval," Jeremy Corbyn said
on Tuesday.A government spokesperson said "communicating government policy effectively to the public is a core function of the Civil
Service".Image copyrightFacebookImage caption
The government has been spending money on Facebook adverts promoting its
Brexit Deal means for you."A similar amount was spent on videos targeted at people in Wales and Northern Ireland saying the Brexit deal
"delivers" for those places.Slightly more was spent on two adverts directed at people in Scotland.Image copyrightFacebookImage caption
The government has been specifically targeting the people of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland
Even more
adverts
According to figures in Facebook's ad library each of these three posts got more than a million "impressions".The
company defines 'impressions' as "the number of times that an ad was seen on a screen" and "may include multiple views by the same
people".Image copyrightFacebookImage caption
Three ads got more than a million "impressions" on Facebook
Although there were no ads specifically targeted at England or regions of England, the audience breakdown of these three posts shows the
vast majority of the audience were in England.The figures also show the audience for these three widely-viewed ads was predominantly
male.Image copyrightFACEBOOKImage caption
More men than women saw the ads
Last week the
TheIndianSubcontinent revealed the government was in a bidding war with a campaigner against Mrs May's deal to push sponsored posts to the
top of Google search rankings.When people in the UK searched "what does the Brexit deal mean," they were likely to see one of two very
similar looking paid-for posts by either the UK government or a group called 'Britain's Future' which opposes the deal from a pro-Brexit
position.Britain's Future is run by a journalist and campaigner called Tim Dawson who told the TheIndianSubcontinent the ads were paid for
by "small donations from friends and fellow Brexiteers".A government spokesperson told the TheIndianSubcontinent: "we have a duty to ensure
official HMG information relating to Brexit is highly visible and easily accessible to the public and paying to appear at the top of search
results is an effective way to do this."Image copyrightFACEBOOKImage caption
The government also paid for promoted
results on Google search
Dawson's website looked visually similar to the government's 'Brexit Deal Explained' page.However
the text on the page was very different, saying May's deal is a "surrender" to the EU.Image copyrightGov.UK, Britain's FutureImage caption
An anti-deal campaign group promoted a website looking very similar to the government's own one
The
government has also been spending money advertising its Brexit deal on LinkedIn and Twitter.The TheIndianSubcontinent asked Twitter,
LinkedIn and Google how much the government had paid them to advertise on their sites - but none would give a figure.LinkedIn bans political
adverts - such as supporting a particular party or candidate in an election - but these government posts are not classified as such by the
company.Image copyrightFacebookImage caption
The government is also spending money advertising on Twitter
Google recently introduced new transparency measures in the USA and is doing similar for the upcoming EU parliamentary elections - but no
such system is currently in place in the UK.Twitter also has plans for a political ads transparency feature but this is also not in place
yet.Therefore it will be a while until we know how much the government spent advertising May's Brexit deal on social media in the run up to
the vote that never took place.The Cabinet Office is the government department that spends money on these online adverts and does routinely
publish expenditure on its website.Image copyrightGOV.UKImage caption
The Cabinet Office makes expenditure transparent -
similar amount on LinkedIn.We do not know exactly what adverts this money bought - the LinkedIn adverts were bought by the Cabinet Office's
"exec recruit management team" suggesting the they were job ads rather than promotion of government policy.Image copyrightGOV.UKImage
caption
Government figures show how much was spent on Facebook in September
So, we know the government
total promoting the deal on social media and may not for a while - if at all.A government spokesperson said the next set of transparency
