Vox: It looks like Trump is trying to trick people into filling out “census” forms online

Shortly ahead of the US National 2020 census, President Trump’s campaign is running ads on Facebook that some are saying are misleading users into thinking that a data-gathering and fundraising survey for the Trump presidential campaign is actually the official US national census. Facebook confirmed with Recode that it plans to take down the ads.

According to Facebook’s ad library, Trump’s Facebook page is running a series of hundreds of ads asking users to respond to what it calls a “census.” But in fact, the ads point to a campaign survey for Trump, not the official 2020 US census. Critics say the ads could mislead users into thinking that they’re filling out the actual census when they’re not — potentially discouraging people from filling out the real US census that will be hitting mailboxes next week. The US census is critical in determining representation and funding for communities, including how $1.5 trillion in federal resources are spent. …

“I absolutely think that these ads are deceptive,” said Keshia Morris Desir, the census project manager for government watchdog organization Common Cause. Morris Desir acknowledged that the ads also clearly affiliate themselves with Trump’s campaign, but said they were still misleading. “Although they also say things like ‘Help Trump Win’ — I definitely think that the fact that you name this as a census at the same time that the 2020 census bureau will be sending similar communications for folks to fill out their census form is unfortunate.”

The real census does not ask partisan questions, nor does it ask people to donate money or support to any political campaign.

Morris Desir said this is another example of how, even beyond using the word “census,” the ads are using deceptive tactics. In one case, one of the Trump Facebook ads includes a video with a clip-art-style image of a scroll that says “2020 Census” with an American Flag on it, next to an image of Trump giving a thumbs-up sign and text that says “Help Shape President Trump’s Winning.”