Adriel Hampton facts for kids

Adriel O. Hampton (born 1978) is an American entrepreneur and political strategist from California. He runs The Adriel Hampton Group, a company that helps promote progressive ideas through digital advertising. He also started a political group called The Really Online Lefty League (PAC).

Earlier in his career, Hampton helped create several projects. These included Pinpoint Predictive, a company that analyzes data, and Gov 2.0 Radio, a podcast. He also helped start Really American, a progressive community on Facebook. Hampton was one of the first people to join NationBuilder, a company that makes software for organizing. In 2009, he made history by being the first person to announce his campaign for Congress using Twitter.

Hampton is well-known for criticizing Facebook's rules about political ads. He believes that Facebook doesn't do enough to stop false political ads on its platform. In 2019, he announced he would run for governor of California. He wanted to highlight issues with Facebook's policies, but he later withdrew from the race.

Early Life and Education

Adriel Hampton was born in Modesto, California. He was homeschooled when he was young. He is also a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation.

Hampton worked as the editor-in-chief of The Impact newspaper at San Joaquin Delta College. He later graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. There, he earned a degree in Rhetoric, which is the study of how people use language to persuade others.

After college, Hampton worked as an editor for several newspapers. These included the Lodi News-Sentinel, the Alameda News Group, and the San Francisco Examiner. He also worked as an investigator for the San Francisco City Attorney's Office.

His Early Work and Campaigns

In March 2009, Hampton started Government 2.0 Radio. His first interview was with Tim O'Reilly, a pioneer of the Web 2.0 movement. Hampton became known for using Twitter and Facebook during his 2009 campaign for Congress. He ran for the CA-10 seat in the House of Representatives. His campaign even used a method called crowdsourcing to write an anti-drug war policy statement. This means many people worked together to create it.

Running for Congress in 2009

On March 18, 2009, Representative Ellen Tauscher was nominated for a new government role. This opened up her seat in Congress. Hampton quickly announced his plan to run for the special election to fill this seat. He gained national attention because he was the first person to announce a congressional campaign on Twitter.

During his campaign, Hampton focused on several key issues. He supported single-payer healthcare, which means the government would pay for everyone's healthcare. He also wanted to audit the Federal Reserve, which is the central bank of the U.S. He also pushed for more money for public education and for capping interest rates. For foreign policy, he wanted to remove U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Hampton received support from important political figures. These included Matthew Rothschild, a former leader of the San Francisco Democratic Party, and Matt Gonzalez, a former president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. However, Hampton was defeated by John Garamendi in the election.

After the Campaign

After his run for Congress, Hampton joined NationBuilder. This company creates software for organizing and managing online content. It helped clients like California Governor Jerry Brown.

In 2015, Hampton left NationBuilder. He then started his own consulting company, The Adriel Hampton Group. This company focuses on digital advertising and building online communities. In the same year, he also helped start Pinpoint Predictive. This company uses data to predict how people will respond to ads. Hampton's consulting firm has worked with various clients, helping them with digital advertising and activism.

Standing Up to Facebook

Adriel Hampton formed a political action committee (PAC) called The Really Online Lefty League (TROLL). A PAC is a group that raises and spends money to support or oppose political candidates. TROLL became well-known for creating a fake advertisement for the Green New Deal. They also launched an ad that falsely claimed Senator Lindsey Graham supported the Green New Deal. TROLL did this to show problems with Facebook's rules for political advertising.

Public concern about social media use in politics and disinformation grew in 2019. This happened after a congressional hearing where Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg if Facebook would remove ads from politicians that spread false information. Zuckerberg replied that they likely would not.

In 2019, TROLL put up digital billboards in places like Utah. These billboards showed a picture of Zuckerberg and President Donald Trump with the words "Trump - Zuckerberg 2020." This was done to raise awareness about how Facebook's advertising policies could help Trump's reelection campaign.

In 2020, Hampton and TROLL released a YouTube ad against Congressman Ken Calvert during an election.

Running for Governor to Challenge Facebook

On October 29, 2019, Hampton announced he was running for governor of California. He said his main reason was to run fake Facebook ads. He stated that "we have some pretty serious issues of corporations now basically running society and I think Facebook is the grossest example of that." Hampton promised his campaign would highlight problems with Facebook's platform.

Facebook responded to his candidacy. A spokesperson said that Hampton "has made clear he registered as a candidate to get around our policies." They added that his content, including ads, would still be checked by third-party fact-checking groups.

Despite Facebook's statement, Hampton successfully ran and promoted more fake ads as a candidate. One ad suggested that Sean Hannity was replacing Mike Pence as Donald Trump's running mate. Another ad made it seem like Mitch McConnell publicly supported impeaching Trump.

In 2019, a writer for the Los Angeles Times, Jon Healy, called Hampton "the most interesting gubernatorial candidate in the country." This was because Hampton was directly challenging Facebook over political misinformation. Hampton also said that climate change was a big reason he decided to run for governor. He argued that the current governor, Gavin Newsom, was too closely connected to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company.