Welcome to PoliDashboard

Making the invisible visible — PoliDashboard is an open-source app for tracking political advertisements on Meta-owned advertising platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. It is designed to help voters, journalists, campaign staffers, and others track the use of targeted ads related to social issues, elections, or politics.

PoliDashboard offers users a near-real-time overview of when and how an advertiser, like a political party or lobbying group, spends its ad budget on Meta-owned platforms and the demographic groups it targets. The app’s primary purpose is to help enhance the transparency of paid political ads on Meta’s platforms, making them more resistant to manipulation by foreign and domestic actors.

The dashboard is developed by the Social Media Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University as part of an international election transparency initiative. The app’s data comes from the Meta Ad Library API and is automatically processed and updated daily. Country-specific dashboards are presented in partnership with select academic and civic partners in countries where the Meta Ad Library is available.

See the About page for up-to-date information about PoliDashboard and our various academic and civic partners.