Information Technology has advanced leaps and bounds, to an extent that it has been a part and parcel of day-to-day life. Social media is one of the digital platforms which has seeped into everyone’s life with no exception. Facebook tops among the social media users where 2.85 billion users are active in a month around the globe. There is an upsurge in the breach of user’s personal data harvested through social media platforms in furtherance of political, financial or personal interest. Manipulation of voter’s choices by the political parties as well as external entities is a new trend in democratic countries.
Democracy –A cladded autocracy!
Today’s democratic leaders are envisioned to focus on ‘individual utility’ rather than working for the majority. Plato one of the early philosophers opined that those who are good at winning elections are the ones to dominate the democratic institutions and this seems to be true in today’s democracy. The Constitution of democratic countries commences with ‘We the people’ connoting that the nation stands as a collective voice of people, Democracy rests on consent, common will and the participation of the masses and not the pursuance of any discrete interest. Democracy and social media are the new age corollary components to reach people and research highlights that social media has been a tool to strengthen the democratic setup and institution. Arab spring or the so-called ’Facebook Revolution’ is one of the highly impactful incidents that led to constitutional democracy where Facebook was one of the mediums for the revolution. Currently, the intensity of change or impact either positive or negative that a platform on cyberspace can achieve is tremendous.
The United States of America has always been proactive in defending democracy and as well to instil democracy worldwide. It has indulged in various military interventions and armed conflicts to defend democracy. Such a staunch believer of democracy failed to respect the free will of electoral voters to vote for their choice of candidate by manipulating the voters. 313 million people use the internet in the USA while 240 million of them use Facebook which is more than half of internet users. Instances highlight that such a humongous platform that reach millions of people was used to mislead and manipulate the users.
Cambridge Analytica and the massive data breach
Cambridge Analytica is one of the infamous political scandals through ICT which highlights the extent to which social media can be used to manipulate the psychology of humans. The 2016 US presidential election involved a massive data breach of individuals to persuade them to vote for Trump. Cambridge Analytica is responsible for using the data of millions of individuals to manipulate their voting preferences by collecting their personal information through their Facebook accounts. Data of millions of Facebook users were collected through ‘this is your digital life’ a Facebook app created by Aleksandr Kogan a former lecturer at Cambridge University. The app portrayed to have indulged in academic research which extracted the personal data of the users including their political beliefs, data of their friends, personal likes and list of contacts. The company, according to Alexander Nix former CEO of Cambridge Analytica, had around 5000 data points on each individual along with the commercial details of the users. These data points were used to alter the ads and videos users see on their profile thereby manipulating the voting beliefs.
Cyberattack – Perils of free internet
Cambridge Analytica is one such scandal that came to light during the 2016 election to woo voters to vote for a particular national party. On the flip side, there exist other covert cyber operations undermining the citizens and manipulating them to disbelief governmental activities – disinformation war. Digital Astroturf – propaganda against governmental institutions, trojan horse outlets – false information, flooding the zone – with fake accounts, rumours to influence users of social media through trending list are a few such instances of disinformation war. The United States of America is not the only country that has faced online manipulation of voters but countries such as South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique too have faced similar ones. A 2019 report on ‘The Social Media Manipulation’ revealed that around 45 democratic countries have used social media to manipulate the voters, there again Facebook remains as a top platform for such manipulation. 80% of total nation-states use bot accounts to further such causes.
The data breach is one of the most common cyberattacks where individuals, businesses and governmental authorities are vulnerable to such attacks. Data breach includes leaked webmail which is a platform for other cyberattacks such as phishing. It is better to realize to secure data now than to repent for the loss that occurred by it. Society today has come a long way in battling autocracy through war and intellectual deliberations. Newer innovation in science and technology, more so, the cyber domain should only lead to a peaceful living than to a hysterical environment.
By: Priyanka Vaidyanath
(Research Scholar, Christ University)
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