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This Is Exactly How an Elon Musk-Funded PAC Is Microtargeting Muslims…

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An Elon Musk-funded group called Future Coalition PAC is targeting Muslim voters in Michigan and Jewish voters in Pennsylvania with diametrically opposed political advertisements about Kamala Harris. In areas of Michigan with relatively large Muslim populations, the Super PAC is painting Harris as a close friend of Israel and is suggesting that she is beholden to the beliefs of her Jewish husband Doug Emhoff; in parts of Pennsylvania with relatively large Jewish populations, the advertisements call Harris antisemitic and say she “support[s] denying Israel the weapons needed to defeat the Hamas terrorists who massacred thousands.” 

Meanwhile, a related PAC also funded by Musk is microtargeting likely Black voters on Snapchat with ads that says Kamala Harris is trying to ban menthol cigarettes (surveys have shown that 81 percent of Black smokers use menthols, and big tobacco has disproportionately marketed menthol cigarettes to Black Americans). 

Here are two ads created by Future Coalition PAC. The ad on the left below are being delivered via Snapchat to people in ZIP codes in Michigan that have many Muslim voters; the ad on the right being delivered via Snapchat to people in ZIP codes in Pennsylvania that have many Jewish voters. 

The fact that Future Coalition PAC is sending these opposing messages to different groups of voters was previously reported by the Huffington Post. The Huffington Post called the strategy the “most cynical” of the 2024 election. Earlier this week, the New York Times reported more about Future Coalition PAC’s funding mechanisms; it is solely funded by a political nonprofit called Building America’s Future. A recent Wall Street Journalinvestigation showed that Musk gave tens of millions of dollars to a group called Citizens for Sanity, which then routed it to Building America’s Future. Building America’s future funds not just Future Coalition PAC but another group called Duty to America PAC.

A 404 Media review of ad targeting data published by Snapchat shows specifically how the ad targeting campaign works, and shows in detail the types of messages being targeted at different groups of voters. 

Here are video ads targeting Muslim voters in Michigan:

And here are video ads targeting Jewish voters in Pennsylvania:

This investigation was possible because Snapchat makes highly specific political ad targeting available to the public as a spreadsheet. 404 Media downloaded this spreadsheet of thousands of political ads and filtered them to ads targeted by a company called MNI Targeted Media, which notes on its website that “data-driven strategies are revolutionizing political communication.” The Snapchat data shows MNI Interactive has been placing ads on behalf of various pro-Trump PACs, including Future Coalition PAC and Duty to America PAC. We then filtered the spreadsheet to ads placed on the behalf of Future Coalition PAC, which showed a total of 40 different ads that have been collectively viewed 3 million times on Snapchat alone. Twelve of these ads were targeted to 51 specific ZIP codes in Pennsylvania, and 28 of them were targeted to 45 specific ZIP codes in Michigan. 

I then plotted these ZIP codes as geographic areas using mapping software and combined the Snapchat data with demographic data. They show that Future Coalition PAC is targeting some of the most-Muslim parts of Michigan and some of the most-Jewish parts of Pennsylvania, according to data I cross-checked with the Association of Religion Data Archives, which maintains a database of approximate religious demographics by county and metro area. Full Michigan map available here. Full Pennsylvania map available here.

Michigan targeted areas

Pennsylvania targeted areas

The data is not perfect, because there are not very many highly specific public databases of religious demographic information available. But our investigation shows, clearly, that Future PAC is at least attempting to directly target Arab-Americans and Muslims with one set of messages and Jewish Americans in critical battleground states with two completely different messages. 

For example, Future Coalition PAC is running ads that paint Harris as pro-Israel in Dearborn, Michigan, which is the first Arab-majority city in the United States, and Hamtramck, a small city encircled by Detroit which was the first Muslim-majority city in the United States. 

Hamtramck’s ZIP code is 48212, which encompasses just a tiny, two-square-mile area. This ZIP code, which contains several major mosques, is targeted by the ads. Then there is a 1.5-mile stretch immediately north of Hamtramck that is nottargeted by the ads (this area, Detroit’s Krainz Woods neighborhood, is 95 percent Black and contains no mosques). Just north of Krainz Woods, the ad targeting begins again in an area where there are several mosques. 

On the map, it looks like this: 

Exact ZIP code map of targeting on the left. At right, a Google Maps screenshot of the same area with the search "mosque." Red outline in the right image is an approximation of the geotargeted ZIP codes drawn by 404 Media

The ads also target the 48307 ZIP code, which is Rochester Hills, Michigan, home to the Islamic Association of Greater Detroit, one of the largest mosques and Muslim cultural centers in the state (and which just completed a $20 million renovation and expansion). There is also a single ZIP code just west of Flint, Michigan, that is being targeted by these same ads. This ZIP code is home to the Dyewood Center, formerly known as the Flint Islamic Center, which is a very large and famous mosque and Islamic cultural center. 

Blue marker is the Dyewood Center

In Pennsylvania, meanwhile, Future Coalition PAC is targeting ZIP codes in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhoods, which is a traditionally Jewish neighborhood and is home to the Tree of Life synagogue that was the site the 2018 mass shooting where a gunman killed 11 people, the deadliest single attack on Jewish people in American history. Nearly every town, city, and neighborhood in the greater Philadelphia area mentioned as being important to the Jewish community by the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia is within the areas being geotargeted by ads.

Areas in Pennsylvania where Jewish voters are being targeted. Click to expand

They are also targeting parts of Harrisburg, Lancaster, and Allentown that have several synagogues and have historically had large Jewish populations. There is no obvious, discernible reason why 17331, a ZIP code in Hanover, Pennsylvania, is being geotargeted by these ads. But the Utz chip factory is located within this ZIP code, and Utz has promoted the fact that many of its products are Kosher and that the company has a rabbinic coordinator.  

The Snapchat data shows, meanwhile, that Duty to America PAC, which is funded by the same organization as Future Coalition PAC that received money from Elon Musk, is running more than 300 ads on the platform. Many of these ads are about menthol cigarettes, which many surveys and studies have shown are disproportionately used by Black smokers and which have been historically marketed heavily to Black Americans by Big Tobacco. 

“With so much chaos in our country and so much to worry about, it must be hard for our leaders to focus on so many problems. So, what’s the solution in Washington, DC? Ignore them all and focus on something else. Banning menthol cigarettes,” one of the ads says. “Democrats are focused on all the wrong things, and it shows. Democrats, don’t ban our menthols.”

The "interest" tags used as targeting on some of the menthol cigarette ads.

The menthol cigarette ads are seemingly all targeted using “interest” tags that political operatives might think would disproportionately hit Black voters such as “Sneakerheads,” “Soul & R&B Fans,” “Hip-Hop Music Fans,” and “basketball fans.” Ads about the economy bought by the same PAC, meanwhile, are either not targeted by interest or are seemingly targeted at men more broadly with tags like “console gamers,” PC gamers, “mobile gamers,” “clubbers and party people,” and “esports enthusiasts.”