Podcasts about transparent referendum initiative

The Transparent Referendum Initiative is a civic initiative that advocates for increased transparency during electoral campaigns in Ireland. Sean is joined by its founder, Liz Carolan.

Ireland is no stranger to referendums. This week we talk to elections expert and transparency campaigner Liz Carolan who co-founded the Transparent Referendum Initiative which used the technology available through Who Targets Me to monitor online advertising during the recent referendum on the country's abortion laws. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

First we look at the news that broke yesterday that Amnesty International Ireland has won its challenge to an order made by the Standards in Public Office Commission, or Sipo. Sipo ordered Amnesty to return money to a foreign donor as it was given to be used 'for political purposes'. The news raises questions about how Sipo came to its flawed decision but also about how we control the flow of money in our politics. Hugh discusses these issues with Colm O'Gorman of Amnesty, Liz Carolan of the Transparent Referendum Initiative and our own Political Editor Pat Leahy. Later on Colm, who is a survivor of clerical abuse, talks about his attitude to the visit of Pope Francis to Ireland next month.

Liz Carolan of the Transparent Referendum Initiative joins Hugh, Pat and Sarah to talk about the biggest story of the campaign this week: the pulling of the digital rug from under campaigners by Facebook and Google. It's clear which side is hurting most, with Google's move a particularly damaging blow to #Savethe8th. But will it be a decisive one? Plus, Sarah reports on another fraught week checking facts for an ungrateful public.

Craig Dwyer, co-founder of the Transparent Referendum Initiative, discusses targeted Facebook advertising ahead of the Irish constitutional referendum on abortion on May 25th. The TRI collects "dark" Facebook posts and is building an openly accessible database of targeted political ads. We discuss some of the major issues surrounding the referendum, the difficulties in discerning when a Facebook ad is "political," and targeted political advertising on other platforms like Google and Youtube. Link to ForaChange. The Medium post mentioned in the episode that shows how difficult it is to see who is paying for Facebook ads.