Meta, Google and X struggle to police AI-generated political ads as ‘slopaganda’ floods the midterms

Wesleyan Media Project researchers have tracked nearly $187 million in AI-driven campaign ad spending, and most of those ads carry no AI disclosure The 2026 midterms have a new star, and it isn’t a candidate. It’s synthetic video. Campaign ads built from AI-generated clips and images, a genre now known as slopaganda, have become a defining feature of this election cycle. That leaves Instagram, YouTube and X with another moderation headache, and no federal rulebook to lean on. The stakes are immediate. Election day falls on November 3, and the spending curve is still pointing up. The numbers behind the slop Researchers at the Wesleyan Media Project have been counting. By mid-October 2026, they had identified more than 220 AI-generated political ads running across 34 states, backed by over $137 million in spending. A couple of weeks later, the count had grown. By late October, the tally reached approximately 289 ads and nearly $187 million in spending. For context, the previous election cycle saw under $50,000 spent on this kind of advertising. The spending is also lopsided. Republican candidates and aligned groups account for 80-88% of the ads and expenditures the researchers tracke...