Plot

Digital advertising algorithms curate content precisely for users. Major tech firms claim to restrict disinformation yet still profit from harmful content, raising ethical concerns about democracy and online capitalism.

The Click Trap reveals how the digital advertising industry, monopolized by only a handful of big tech and social media companies, is leading to serious harms both on and offline. Digital advertising, which uses sophisticated algorithms to track and target customers so that personalized ads flash before their eyes in a matter of milliseconds, is now being exploited by dark actors. It has become an easy way to make money from the spread of hate and mis- and disinformation - extremist content generates clicks, and clicks generate profit. At the same time, cyber scammers across the globe are using programmatic advertising to target specific groups of vulnerable internet users. The powerful technology behind the advertising industry, which sustains the infrastructure of the modern internet as we know it, has profound and far-reaching consequences: shaping the outcome of elections, fueling genocidal violence, polarizing communities, and allowing ordinary people to be cheated by scammers without any criminal repercussions. Testimony from politicians, journalists, academics, digital activists and a scam victim whose life was turned upside down, will give us a unique insight into how and why this murky industry continues to flourish. Is there a way to make online advertising more ethical? Is there a way to better protect internet users? Is it time to hold big tech platforms to account? The Click Trap shows us change is possible, but that for now, we should remain cautiously optimistic about the possibility of a fairer and safer digital world.