Non-party campaigners: UK Parliamentary general elections

Material restricted to specific people

Material that you limit so it can only be seen by people that have chosen to receive it will not be considered made available to the public, or a section of the public.

Example

This could be campaign material in the form of a newsletter you send only to people who have signed up to receive updates from you, have joined your membership scheme or have donated to your campaign. You do not make this campaign material available anywhere else.

Websites and blogs

Website content, including blogs, will be considered made available to the public if there are no restrictions on who can access the content. It will be regulated if it:

• contains content than can reasonably be regarded as intended to influence voters
• is advertised (or otherwise promoted) to the public, or a section of the public, in connection with your campaign

Advertising or promoting can include:

• giving the website address as a source for more information on other campaign material, or in other communications such as email updates
• enhancing the website’s position in search engine result lists
• placing links on other websites
• organised viral marketing or similar activities

Example

You produce a graphic during the regulated period that you encourage your supporters to share on their social media accounts to bring attention to your organisation. The graphic includes a link to a public page on your website where people can find out more information about your campaign. You have assessed that both the graphic and the website meet the purpose test.

Both the website and the graphic have no restrictions on who can access them and are therefore considered made available to the public. As the material also meets the purpose test they will count as regulated campaign activities.

In contrast, if you put material on your website that is available only to people you send the link to, for example to those who have signed up to your email mailing list, this material will not be considered made available to the public. In this scenario the material will therefore not be a regulated campaign activity.

Social media

Campaign material published on social media that is available for anyone to view has been made available to the public. This includes campaign material naming or targeted at a particular section of the public, for example campaigns directed at residents of a particular area, or people who are members of specific groups or networks.

However, social media content that is restricted to a specific group of people and cannot be accessed by any member of the public, has not been made available to the public. For example, campaign material shared only on a closed Facebook group or private X (formerly Twitter) account would likely not be regulated for this reason.

To assess whether campaign material you make available to the public on social media will be regulated, you will need to consider whether it also meets the purpose test.

If spending on social media is available to the public, or a section of the public, and meets the purpose test, you must account for the cost of producing, updating and distributing this material. In many cases, the costs of posting material on a social media site, for example sending a tweet or updating a Facebook page, will be negligible.

Newspapers and periodicals

The production or publication of any content – other than an advertisement – in a newspaper or periodical (including online versions of newspapers and periodicals) is not regulated campaign activity.1

However, if you advertise in a newspaper or periodical, the advertisement will be regulated if the advertisement is available to the public, or a section of the public, and meets the purpose test. An example of this would be an advertisement you place in a local newsletter encouraging the public to vote for a group of candidates.