Previously, political and public advertisements could be posted on Facebook, essentially unregulated. Today however, increasingly strict rules define political advertising on the platform. Against the background of the elections, Hungarian and US voters show similar, slightly differing political and social trends.
According to the Lounge Group representative study on US and Hungarian voters,
Facebook and Instagram are the leading social media platforms in the USA and Hungary among users over 18.
Nearly nine out of every ten Hungarian are on Facebook: posting, reading, commenting, liking. This is the most popular social media forum in Hungary, just as in America. Given the page’s reach and expansion throughout the past few years, it has become a global force capable of connecting with members across all of society.
However, there are differences between age groups. For example, in Hungary Facebook is the primary platform for users between the ages of 18 and 34. This same younger generation also uses Tiktok and Instagram. In America this age group has similar diversification between social media channels used; the difference between the proportion of users of these platforms is much smaller and many more use Twitter. In Hungary, the older someone is, the more likely they use Facebook exclusively—Instagram comes in at a distant second. In fact, Instagram is used by only 20% of the 35-49 age group. The situation is comparable in America too, except that Instagram and Twitter is used much more in this 35-49 age group; 40% of adults in this group uses Instagram and Twitter, but later generations are far less present on the platforms.
“Though Facebook is not the primary source of news for most age groups, it still deserves special attention for public content. This is not only because of the platform’s popularity, but also because of the demographic and interest-based ad targeting. US Facebook users number 223 million, 387 million in Europe, and among those, 6.35 million in Hungary. Facebook is also the primary platform for two-way communication”—highlighted Krisztina Hidvégi, Media Director at Lounge Group. According to the company group’s research, Hungarians primarily share Hungarian political content here: