Alex Salmond’s production firm spent £10k promoting TV show on Facebook

A production company co-owned by Alex Salmond spent more than £10,000 on Facebook adverts to promote the former first minister’s chat show in the past year, data from the tech giant has revealed.

Alex Salmond on Russia Today

More was spent on targeted adverts placed through his Facebook page than for any other individual politician in Scotland from October 2018 until September this year.

Mr Salmond, who left front line politics in 2017 after losing his Westminster seat, remains a dominant figure in the independence movement with a huge following on social media.

Slainte Media spent a total of £10,219 on Facebook adverts linked to the former SNP leader’s official page, which is followed by almost 170,000 people.

Former SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, editor of The Alex Salmond Show on Kremlin-backed broadcaster RT, said the adverts were used exclusively to promote each episode that premiered on Facebook.

She added the advertising was focused on England and overseas as the show “already has an established following in Scotland”.

Mr Salmond joins a list of hundreds of individual politicians and elected officials who have placed nearly half-a-million pounds’ worth of promotions on the site in less than a year, analysis by JPI Media can reveal.

In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook began publishing details of who places - and pays for - adverts promoting political or social issues. Spending on these adshas totalled more than £6.4m since last October.

The Scots Tories spent just over £4,000 on adverts promoting former leader Ruth Davidson’s Facebook page in the same period, while new Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson spent £3,042.

But nothing was spent on promoting Nicola Sturgeon’s official Facebook page, which is followed by more than 300,000 people.

The SNP has said previously that its motivated membership means it can reach large online audiences without needing to pay for ads.

Under new rules Facebook introduced in October 2018, anyone placing an advert relating to politics, social issues or elections must declare who paid for it. Around 300 ads on the pages of local politicians and councils were run without these disclaimers - including 40 placed on behalf of sitting MPs.