The last decade has seen social media platforms become a staple for political expression, debate and discourse. Whether citizens expressing their opinion, liking or agreeing with other opinions, debating with others or following political figures, there is a flurry of political activity on social media platforms.
While I myself don’t actively respond or post political opinions on social media often, I do follow hashtag trends to see what are the trending views online. A research piece from Pew Research in 2018 showed that I am not alone in my political engagement on social media, with half of Americans in 2018 having been civically active on social media. I daresay with the pandemic this figure may have increased.
With politically engaged civilians tuning into social media, the nature of campaigning has changed and also moved onto these platforms. Platforms offer greater campaign efficiency, voter activation and even fund-raising (Nelimarkka et al, 2020). We can see politicians investing more in social media campaigns, an example being Dan Andrews $1 million spend on Facebook advertising (news.com.au, 2022).
While social media has made political engagement more accessible and given citizens the ability to have their voice heard, it has also raised potential risk to democracy through disinformation, sharing of false information or fake news. This has been particularly evident during elections where fake news peaked on Twitter, and what is scary is that am published study from 2018 showed that false rumours spread faster and wider than true information (Aral et al,2018). In fact, fake information is 70% more likely to be retweeted on Twitter than the truth, and reach their first 1,500 people six times faster, particularly with the political news.
In my opinion, social media is a double-edged sword for politics and democracy. It has enabled more citizens to actively participate in political discourse which is positive, but the risk of disinformation exists, and we don’t yet have the answer for how to solve this.
References
Hales, H. (2022, August 25). Premier Daniel Andrews’ Facebook ad spend topped $1m since 2015. News.com.au. https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/politics/premier-daniel-andrews-facebook-ad-spend-topped-1m-since-2015
Nelimarkka, M, Laaksonen, S, Tuokka, M, Valkonen, T 2020, Platformed Interactions: How Social Media Platforms Relate to Candidate–Constituent Interaction During Finnish 2015 Election Campaigning, Social Media + Society, vol, 6, no. 2.
Public attitudes toward political engagement on social media. (2018, July 11). Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/07/11/public-attitudes-toward-political-engagement-on-social-media/
Study: False news spreads faster than the truth | MIT Sloan. (2018, March). MIT Sloan. https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/study-false-news-spreads-faster-truth