How Meta Brings in Millions Off Political Violence

A joint investigation by CalMatters and The Markup combined manual ad-library review with Meta's own Llama AI model to identify and total political ads referencing two violent episodes: the July 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump and the escalation of the Israel-Gaza conflict after October 7, 2023. It found advertisers spent an estimated $593,000 to $813,000 on ads explicitly referencing the Trump shooting within ten weeks, with one apparel company alone accounting for roughly $473,000-$798,000 of that spending across more than 2,600 ads; ad spending tied to Israel-Gaza content reached $14.8-$22.1 million in the months after October 7, up to a 450 percent increase over the same period the prior year, with some advocacy groups raising spending more than 300 percent.

The investigation concludes that Meta's advertising business can generate substantial additional revenue in the wake of real-world violence, in apparent tension with the company's stated policies against profiting from violent events, and raises questions about moderation gaps for non-English-language ad content.