The Influence of Social Media’s Rise
By: Mirabel Ge
As big tech companies like Facebook and Twitter expand their user populations, misinformation and propaganda have grown hand in hand. Social media continues to infiltrate our lives, and privacy and propaganda have become an ever-prevalent topic of discussion. Media algorithms now track patterns of interest. These algorithms, in turn, send advertisements and content directed towards that behavior, causing what is now known as the “echo chamber” phenomenon. Media algorithms are trained to introduce content based on similar user activity, limiting users’ access to opposing viewpoints. Social media algorithms inadvertently affect civic engagement, thus undermining democracy by having the potential to influence people’s thinking.
The infamous Cambridge Analytica and Facebook controversy in the 2010s proved that the intersection between media and politics has been long in the works. Cambridge Analytica was a company that provided data services to political campaigns. An investigation by the Bipartisan Policy Center revealed that Facebook gave Cambridge Analytica 50 million user profiles without the user’s consent. This data was used to construct “voter profiles.” According to NPR, Cambridge Analytica could create psychological profiles based on “personality tests” rolled out to hundreds of thousands of people. These profiles manifested themselves in the 2016 election when Ted Cruz kicked off his campaign. Cruz’s campaign delivered their messaging differently for each profile category. This means the data was used to create customized advertisements for each person to sway their voting. Eventually, his campaign grew skeptical of this approach and, as a result, soon phased out psychological profiling. Once Cruz dropped out of the presidential race, Cambridge Analytica turned towards the prospective GOP nominee, Donald Trump. The company utilized survey research to target ads throughout the campaign, culminating in billions of views. After the election, Cambridge Analytica took credit for Trump’s 2016 victory. Cambridge Analytica is just one example of how social media has altered the political landscape. In this age of artificial intelligence and algorithms, analysis of behavior has become increasingly simple, regardless of whether or not people choose to disclose their personal information.
Looking even deeper into the 2016 elections, one finds that foul play within the media is not confined to the United States. While Russia did not directly alter the election’s voting results, it stole 500,000 voters’ personal information and successfully deployed propaganda. Furthermore, Russian military intelligence, also known as GRU, hijacked Hillary Clinton’s campaign by sending out emails disguised as Google security notifications to her campaign team months leading up to the election. The fake emails would include a link that provided the agents full access to the users’ accounts when clicked. GRU agents were able to steal tens of thousands of emails (containing speeches, conversations, and strategies) from Clinton’s campaign staffers and used the same methods to hack the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The Russian agents dumped the leaked emails and information onto a website called “WikiLeaks.” Uncoincidentally, a longtime Trump confidant, Roger Stone, had strong ties to WikiLeaks. Stone’s private Twitter messages were obtained by The Atlantic on October 13, 2016, cementing the allegations of Stone’s secret correspondence with WikiLeaks. The Trump Campaign Allegedly directed one of their staffers to contact Stone if there were any additional leaks. With the emails open to public speculation, Clinton and her campaign were under scrutiny— many of the emails and conversations were construed to be negative. Clinton was not the only Trump presidential rival that fell victim to Russian influences, though. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a Republican candidate in the primaries, said that the Russians hacked his campaign emails as well. Russia did not stop at hijacking emails; they shifted focus to spreading propaganda and criticism on social media, most notably through a Russian company called The Internet Research Agency. This company studied American political groups and traveled to multiple states to develop a web of fake accounts. In 2016, they posted contentious content about issues like the Black Lives Matter movement and gun laws to confuse and mislead followers. The agency generated political ads that criticized Clinton, targeting the followers they had amassed. As such, social media is a platform rife with false information and propaganda targeted towards specific groups of people in hopes of manipulating electoral outcomes. Because of this exposure, it is difficult to say that the elections are entirely democratic and that governments are, as Abraham Lincoln once said, “by, of, and for the people,” if there are external factors that can affect voters’ thinking. While it is impossible to quantify Russia’s impact on the 2016 election definitively, these hackers undoubtedly spewed propaganda with the intention of altering the electorate.
Social media has become a universal way of communication and a source of information. As media becomes more relevant in our daily lives, it weaves its way into politics at the expense of our country’s democracy. The media can be weaponized in many ways; propaganda and data breaches are inevitable issues that plague the internet and have the potential to cause democratic erosion. One potential consideration would be passing legislation to hold big tech companies accountable for the content and algorithms on their platforms. This would incentivize companies to mobilize more careful regulation. American society should not have to wait idly for another, even larger-scale attack on its democracy to scramble to make amends. In the meantime, the political landscape should tread with caution
