- 18/01/2018
- Category: Commentaries
We have quite seen the ways elections and political stages are affected by technology, particularly the internet. The rise of Donald Trump the recent US election has been regarded by many as a wake-up call for us to finally comprehend the significant roles of the internet in politics as well as the consequences it bears. This commentary wishes to capture the role of technology in affecting the electoral trends in 2017 and a general presupposition that might brief our readers regarding ways of seeing elections in 2018.
The Good: The Rise of Hologram and Social Media Interaction
There is some great news coming from the high technology sector when it comes to the election. One of the current trends in 2017 includes the holographic appearance of the candidates; one that spiked the mainstream media attention came from the French Election earlier in 2017 when Jean-Luc Mélenchon appeared in six rallies at the same time.[i] Apparently, it was not the only time a candidate proposed this high tech mode of the rally. In November 2017; Pakistan Peoples Party’s Bilawal Bhutto Zardari used hologram technology to expand the outreach of his campaign.[ii] Despite the excitement held by the two candidates, it must be noted that we can trace this trend coming from Narendra Modi back in 2014 during his campaign period.[iii] However, we are looking forward to seeing the extent of this hologram technology as it answers the issues of logistic effectiveness, not to mention the additional theatrics which used to be left on the imagination in science fiction movies.
In addition, the popularity of candidates engaging with the people through social media has grown to be successful. Electoral candidates have the chance to speak and even answer some of the questions up and personal through their social media accounts eliminating that gap without denouncing the political purpose. Social media trends in the election have started way before 2017, but now the mediums to interact with these figures varied starting from the regular status updates, video blogs or vlogs, micro-blogs, and many more. It is safe to say that we can expect more innovations and technologies being used in political activities including election campaigns in the near future.
The Bad: Hoax, Fake News, and Post-Election Stress Disorder
Hoax and fake news are still running rampant in the social media realm. The force of social media in perpetuating information and the new information sharing behavior overwhelmed some governmental bodies. The United States wanted to hold some of the social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter accountable for the last 2016 Presidential Election, and the Congress called upon these companies in November 2017 to testify. It was visible that the role the social media was instead significant especially in the creation of algorithm bubbles which might affect the preferences of voters when they are being monopolized by particular stakeholders.[iv] In Indonesia, the attention was directed to the gubernatorial election in its capital province, the Special Region of Jakarta, where it was very visible that the role of social media was pertinent. Hoaxes and fake news spread uncontrollably during the election period which arguably led the voters’ opinion on a certain candidate and contributed to the derailing the election.[v] Meanwhile, Indonesia’s government has successfully detained Saracen, a harmful group which operated on spreading hoaxes, hate speech, social media provocations and such in the depth of the governor election.[vi]
Another current trend for elections and technology is the Post-Election Stress Disorder. Apparently, one of the leading causes of election stress disorder can be traced back to social media fights and hatred. APA researchers found that out of 55% of Democrats and 59% of Republicans said the election is a “very significant” or “somewhat significant” source of stress.[vii] Furthermore, voters who avidly pay attention to the election through social media are more stress-prone, as the report also found that 86 percent of adults regularly or often check their email, texts and social media accounts, and that those who are constant checkers are more likely to experience stress. By these rapidly rising conditions, psychiatrists and doctors recommended the users to seek help when it’s needed, to plug off from time to time, and to avoid unnecessary Internet fights which might trigger negative emotions.[viii] More than that, as the spread of hoax and fake news is expected to keep trailing the combat against negative contents, it is also imperative that the same story will likely to follow in elections and other political events. Also, seeing how social media has also started to penetrate our lives and affect us deeper and in greater degrees, stress disorder derived from social media pressure might also linger around in the upcoming future.
The Ugly: Disruption, Fragmentation, and Transparency?
The vast development of Technology has proven to affect the dynamics of politics which are not limited to elections only. However, for this case, it does not necessarily have to be the ugly. More countries are looking forward to including cybersecurity measures to assure the accountability and transparency of elections. In Indonesia, the means of preventive actions were taken by new digital literacy framework that would encompass future voters to be wiser in selecting the kind of information especially the ones coming from the social media. Furthermore, in the thick of polarization and fragmentation narratives, countries must remain united to achieve the objectives which are envisioned during the elections.
More importantly, actions and innovations have been taken to allow technology to create a healthier electoral environment. For example, the use of blockchain to protect voter records and election results would diminish the chances of tampered results. In 2017, Russian Federation announced a pilot project to implement that effort known as “Active Citizen”. The introduction of Active Citizen had started earlier in 2014 with 1.9 million citizens have used it, and more than 87.2 million opinions have been gathered. During peak times approximately 1,000 votes per minute can be cast.[ix] Hopefully, this project will come around in the time of Russia’s next election in 2018 and can restore the trust between government and the people. It has not been a trend but a potential way to make sure that the democratic process remained true for the people.
The Way Ahead: Preparing Ourselves
2018 will be colored by a large number of elections. In South America, major countries like Colombia and Venezuela will hold their presidential elections, along with European countries such as Russia, Ireland, and Finland. Various general and parliamentary elections will commence in every continent, hence the existence of digital realm adds a new discourse to the dynamics of elections. The abundance of information, both real and fake ones will try to lure peoples’ opinion and political preferences. While social media giants are being held accountable for their algorithm, policy-wise even the Congress in the United States still needs to evaluate and define the meaning of Internet as a political space.[x] It must also be understood that technological advancement in the last five years, according to Ray Kurweil will multiple tremendously through exponential pattern starting with eight, sixteen, to thirty-two percent more advanced throughout the year.[xi] Despite the findings did not include the notion of digital divide and gap, the general outlook for this advancement acknowledged how in the next couple of years our set of knowledge in comprehending technology might be different. This will only be pushed by the expansion of technology but it will also alter some of the ethics of mankind, in relations to governance, and including elections.
The 2018 series of local elections in Indonesia is a good testing ground for the newly launched digital literacy framework to see the outcomes of the program, whether or not the society especially the youth responds well in processing information that comes from the Internet and in identifying hoax surrounding the elections. In 2018, the world shall familiarize itself with the value of data through cybersecurity. Furthermore, there will be several stakeholders who are looking forward to tampering the elections (as a subject to state’s future governance) using new forms of cyber-warfare, benefiting from the algorithm and even foul news. Keeping the democratic ground fair and just requires a governmental capability to adapt and learn fast from these changes, and public and private collaboration in research and development is one of the ways of doing so. Volatilities during elections are to be expected. Nonetheless, through the initiative, the government has a high hope of preserving the unity of the country regardless of whoever won the elections. Withal, elections and technology were designed to improve the lives of the people; the two subjects which can actually work side by side without harming the other.
Editors: Atin Prabandari, MA(IR), Viyasa Rahyaputra, SIP, Nabeel Khawarizmy Muna, SIP
References
[i] P., Geiger, D. and Bienaime, P. (2017). The dawn of cyber politicians. [online] Aljazeera.com. Available at: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/02/dawn-cyber-politicians-170219104850684.html [Accessed 27 Dec. 2017].
[ii] Syed, S. (2017). Bilawal to morph into hologram to expand PPP’s outreach. [online] Geo.tv. Available at: https://www.geo.tv/latest/168717-bilawal-to-morph-into-hologram-to-expand-ppps-outreach [Accessed 27 Dec. 2017].
[iii] Nelson, D. (2014). ‘Magic’ Modi uses hologram to address dozens of rallies at once. [online] Telegraph.co.uk. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/10803961/Magic-Modi-uses-hologram-to-address-dozens-of-rallies-at-once.html [Accessed 27 Dec. 2017].
[iv] Naughton, J. (2017). Facebook is not listening to the fake news furore | John Naughton. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/05/facebook-not-listening-fake-news-furore-us-senate-hearing-mark-zuckerberg [Accessed 27 Dec. 2017].
[v] BBC News (2017). How Fake News and Hoaxes Have Tried to Derail Jakarta’s Election. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39176350 [Accessed 27 Dec. 2017]
[vi] The Jakarta Post (2017). Police probing 100GB data in Saracen investigation. [online] The Jakarta Post. Available at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/08/26/police-probing-100gb-data-in-saracen-investigation.html [Accessed 27 Dec. 2017].
[vii] Netburn, D. (2016). Feeling anxious about the election? Here’s how to cope with election stress disorder. [online] latimes.com. Available at: http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-election-stress-disorder-20161104-story.html [Accessed 27 Dec. 2017].
[viii] Alderman, L. (2017). Therapists Offer Strategies for Postelection Stress. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/well/how-to-follow-the-news-in-a-political-age-of-anxiety.html [Accessed 27 Dec. 2017].
[ix] Zavyalova, V. (2017). Making elections transparent: Blockchain might improve Russia’s voting system. [online] Rbth.com. Available at: https://www.rbth.com/science-and-tech/326961-blockchain-making-elections-transparent [Accessed 27 Dec. 2017].
[x] McCarthy, T. (2017). Facebook, Google and Twitter grilled by Congress over Russian meddling – as it happened. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/live/2017/oct/31/facebook-google-twitter-congress-russian-election-meddling-live [Accessed 12 Jan. 2018].
[xi] The Emerging Future (2018). Estimating the Speed of Exponential Technological Advancement, The emerging Future. [online] Theemergingfuture.com. Available at: http://theemergingfuture.com/speed-technological-advancement.htm [Accessed 16 Jan. 2018].
