Case study: Digital Political Campaigns
This article was written by Michaela Sullivan-Paul.
Introduction.
Social media has fundamentally changed the 24-hour news cycle, offering its users instant and endless updates. Social media has evolved into a tool of communication between governmental offices and the public. Thus, it is no surprise that politics and the digital world have subsequently become interconnected.
Given the global COVID-19 pandemic many services and experiences have increased their dependence on the Internet. There is perhaps no better example of this than the most recent US Presidential election where campaigns had nowhere else to go but online. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a research group who tracks political spending, campaign funds invested in digital advertising has more than tripled this year in comparison to the previous US Presidential election in 2016. In the wake of digital advancements, one must wonder if the future of campaigning is digital.
Door knocking, canvassing, fundraising events, and meet and greets, have all been replaced during the 2020 election to combat the transmission of COVID-19. What would normally offer candidates physical interactions with their constituents, is now being replaced by Zoom calls, Facebook Lives, Instagram Stories, and even TikToks. While some might expect a decrease in public engagement during the pandemic, the 2020 Presidential Elections instead yielded the highest voter turnout in US history. This is particularly impressive considering the nation-wide lockdowns imposed during the election. Though this turnout is representative of many factors beyond campaigning strategies, it does suggest that digital campaigns may indeed be an effective alternative to traditional campaigning strategies.
Political campaigns online
What digital campaigning offers above more traditional strategies is its ability to organize and mobilize a larger population entirely online. By reducing barriers of entry, the public can now participate in a wider range of political events, share their political knowledge on a variety of platforms in a variety of mediums, and invite online communities to partake. Likewise, candidates can reach larger audiences and target specific demographics in a cost and time-effective manner. This, however, poses its own contentions. While many have accepted the transition to online campaigning, many remain concerned about the unregulated nature of online political advertisements and content.
The controversial 2016 Presidential election of Donald Trump and the more recent outbreak of the Cambridge Analytica scandal demonstrate the dangerous possibilities of digital campaigning. Suppressing marginalized voters, creating online echo-chambers, and misusing personal information to target specific users are no longer a possible concern when navigating the Internet, but a very real reality. These events subsequently contributed to the public impression that the very institutions that should regulate the digital world are, in fact, deeply embedded in it. National and international organizations’ failure to prioritize online transparency has thus, resulted in a harmful public distrust in such institutions, as well as the owners and operators of the digital world.
“in a democracy, I believe that people should be able to see for themselves what politicians that they may or may not vote for are saying and judge their character for themselves.” — Mark Zuckerberg
The need to regulate digital campaigning
Regulating digital campaigning is about as old as digital campaigning itself — so, not very old. Despite the increasing awareness regarding the unregulated nature of the internet, very little has been done to bring online campaigning to the same level of regulation as its traditional counterparts. To maintain the effectiveness of digital campaigning, the public must trust the online world and the institutions intended to regulate it. Unfortunately, this regulation remains in the hands of Big Tech companies themselves. Perhaps what makes political campaigning in the digital world unsettling is the notion that the institutional bodies that the public expect to protect online users, are the same ones benefiting from its unregulated nature.
Thus, the following are some measures that can be taken to increase transparency in online content and digital political campaigns.
Firstly, pre-existing policy regulating television and in print political messages should be expanded to include online content aimed at increasing the transparency of online political campaigns. Although seemingly simple, establishing a comprehensive regulatory standard on all media — whether traditional or online — would create an overarching standardization of campaigning material across all media platforms. However, recognizing that the online world differs from traditional media is necessary for developing regulatory policy that protects users from the specificities of the digital world such as privacy breaches, the circulation of misinformation, and consent to collecting and using personal data.
Secondly, the formation of a third-party, independent regulatory body, would oversee and enforce regulatory frameworks aimed at protecting users and their data. While the protection of users would be a priority, the independent body would also be responsible for the digital education of the public. This would ensure increased awareness regarding the use of personal data, online safety, and frameworks that allow users to navigate the online world with greater understanding of developments in the digital world. However, most importantly, the independent body would enforce provisions for increased transparency for online content. This, however, is impossible without legislation passed by elected officials — arguably the same people who often benefit from unregulated online content.
Thirdly, the enforcement of imprints on digital content is necessary in providing users with the relevant information regarding the content they consume. This imprint would provide users with information of who is behind and responsible for the content. This is already a provision in traditional offline campaigning materials but should be expanded to include digital materials as well.
There are challenges to regulating the digital world. The legislation that exists today is largely uncoordinated and lack the legal reach to manage the transnational aspects of the Internet. Big Tech giants, such as Facebook, that operate in countries around the world are often regulated according to national legislation, but without coordinated transnational legislation, there are less opportunities to enforce transparency and hold Big Tech accountable.
While engaging with elected officials via social media appears democratic enough, is it enough to update our democracy? Perhaps not entirely. However, introducing online campaign reform would reduce instances of foreign interference in political campaigns which would uphold the integrity of free and fair elections, a cornerstone for democracy.
“because technology does not stand still; neither can democracy” — Kofi Annan
It is hard to imagine that digital campaigning and online events will completely replace traditional campaigning methods. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, many may expect to see a greater push towards face-to-face interactions. However, this is not sufficient to dismiss online campaigning entirely. What will likely persist, is a fluid synthesis of both traditional and modern strategies that will challenge future candidates to keep up with social media trends while committing to traditional campaign strategies in order to capture the attention of all voter demographics. This shift towards a greater dependence on digital campaigning calls for a shift in regulatory policy aimed at increasing transparency and protecting users and their data. The digital world offers no shortage of concerns worth considering as we venture further into a digital world.
This article has been published as per submission by the student (the author) and based on the lecture given by the professor in the context of an assignment, for comments or edits please contact the author : name.lastname@sciencespo.fr
