[Toronto, Ontario] — [March 31, 2025] — As the 2025 Canadian federal election gets underway, the newly redesigned PoliDashboard.org arrives at a crucial moment, providing timely tools to track and analyze political advertising on Meta platforms (Facebook and Instagram).
Developed by the Social Media Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University, PoliDashboard is an open-source project built to increase transparency in digital campaigning and support public understanding of how political messages are delivered online. It is part of a global initiative to promote transparency in elections and public discourse.
The goal of PoliDashboard is to shine a light on paid political advertising on Meta platforms—helping make social media users less vulnerable to manipulation by both foreign and domestic actors.
This new release includes powerful updates:
- Audience Demographic Filters: Explore which demographic groups (based on age and gender) each advertiser targets;
- Location-Based Filtering: See where ad dollars are being spent by province/state;
- Enhanced Speed & Usability: Experience a faster, more intuitive user interface, making it easier than ever to dive into the data.
“These upgrades come at a critical time,” said Philip Mai, co-director of the Social Media Lab and a member of the PoliDashboard development team. “As Canadians head into another federal election, it’s vital that we understand who’s spending money on political ads, what messages they’re promoting, and whom they’re trying to influence.”
PoliDashboard uses publicly available data from Meta’s Ad Library, providing rich visualizations and advanced filtering options to empower journalists, researchers, civil society organizations and the public.
Anatoliy Gruzd, also part of the PoliDashboard development team, added:
“Our goal is to make political ad data more accessible and meaningful—not just for researchers and journalists, but for anyone who wants to see how digital platforms are being used to shape public opinion. Transparency is the first step toward accountability.”
Explore the dashboard now at: https://polidashboard.org/
Media Contact:
[Philip Mai]
[[email protected]]
[Social Media Lab, Toronto Metropolitan University]