Why social networks are the gravest threat to democracy in its history
As the United States readies for crucial midterm elections, the US Department of Justice has accused Russia of interfering in the polls through Project Lakhta, a scheme to create thousands of fake email accounts and profiles on social networks, hiding their identity behind VPNs, pretending to be US activists and to sow division among voters by generating content on a wide range of contentious topics such as gun control, race relations and immigration. These are the same tactics (with a few new tricks) that won Donald Trump the 2016 elections, and once again, his campaign will be the biggest advertiser on Facebook.
Meanwhile, in Brazil, disinformation is spreading unchecked through WhatsApp, which is used by 120 million Brazilians. The company says it will take legal action against anyone using it for electoral misinformation campaigns. Preliminary investigations suggest far right candidate Jair Bolsonaro has taken Donald Trump’s lead and in a campaign full of accusations of illegal financing, has used front companies to send hundreds of millions of rumors and fake news to the smartphones of Brazilians attacking his opponent, Fernando Haddad of the Workers Party.
A recent study based on 100,000 images distributed on WhatsApp during the election campaign showed more than half contained misinformation. Bolsonaro’s WhatsApp campaign breaches Brazil’s electoral law by involving companies, which are prohibited from making political donations, to finance the operation, as well as by not registering electoral expense with regulators, and by purchasing lists of telephone numbers to distribute messages. If it can be proved that Bolsonaro benefited from the campaign, his candidacy could be canceled, or if he had already been elected, he could be dismissed from the presidency; that said, there is marked skepticism in the country toward an electoral law that tends to do too little, too late.
The US and Brazilian elections are just the latest examples of the biggest crisis of democracy in its history: the use of social networks to micro-target and manipulate voters through demagogic messages and fake news. All electoral campaigns try to win voters over, but they must do so within reasonable limits and above all, without interference from foreign countries or by illegal means. It is not clear whether Facebook’s war room will be able to do much to prevent the spread of misinformation and propaganda.
Western democracy faces an exceptional challenge from misuse of the social networks and we can expect further problems in the coming years. Exceptional times require exceptional measures, and it would be foolhardy to rely on the likes of Facebook or Twitter to take them: instead, we need to give electoral legislation teeth, to dismiss candidates who break the rules, and we need to swiftly block foreign interference.
As things stand, our electoral laws are simply no match for technology, so we need to act expeditiously to bring it up to speed. Is our democracy equipped to address the challenges it faces, which question its very existence? So far, clearly, it’s shown itself unable to do so, and the consequences are proving very grave.
(En español, aquí)
