Cambridge Analytica has gained personal information such as where you live, what can you drive, what their health concerns are, what newspaper they read and other very private details.
Then using this information, psychographics is used to pushing them in persuading to vote for a particular candidate. In the case of United States, Donald Trump is reported to use Cambridge Analytica in ensuring people turn their votes against Hilary Clinton and favor Trump.
Professor David Carroll was a campaigner for Barack Obama during his presidential bid but did not help Hilary Clinton. When Professor Carroll requested what details, Cambridge Analytica had of him he was surprised. It was accurate.
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It was based on rankings and included 3 out of 10 for gun rights, 7 out of 10 on national security important and he was favoring the Democratic party.
He said-
“It seemed so invasive. This was about predicting my behavior without my knowledge or consent.”
Is the intrusion of private details to feed off it, right? Political parties should persuade people out of their policies and not by political campaigning online. The digital world brings with it a lot of threats and challenges, which can affect the voter’s honest vote. What is promised is not what is shown and has long-term repercussions.
The digital world has progressed the world, on many fronts but in the electoral rights, it has proven to be a major problem. Politics is seen to be less progressive due to these vital privacy issues.
Social media like Facebook and Twitter run political campaigns which have a negative effect on society. Many a time these political campaigns get ugly with fights online and even riots offline in the streets.
Free discussion is encouraged, but with political campaigning, it starts to become very one-sided. There’s also the issue of capital, which if one party has more will use all it can to influence voters through social media’s advertising. Either political parties should be banned from using these platforms, or platforms such as Facebook and Twitter should not promote such activities.
