The regulatory ecosystem of data driven campaigning in the UK

Frontiers in Political Science

Political Science

Andrew Barclay¹  Katherine Dommett¹  Rachel Gibson² 

[1]Department of Politics and International Relations, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

[2]The Department of Politics, The School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

关键词: data;    elections;    data-driven campaigning;    regulation;    digital;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpos.2023.1146470

 received in 2023-01-17, accepted in 2023-08-21,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Political campaigns are increasingly described as data-driven, as parties collect and analyse large quantities of voter data to target their campaign messages in ever more granular ways, particularly online. These practices have increasingly been facing calls for greater regulation due to the range of harms they are seen to pose for citizens and democracy more generally. Such harms include the intrusions on voter privacy, reduced transparency in how messages are constructed and targeted at voters and exposure to increasingly divisive and polarizing political content. Given that data-driven campaigning (DDC) encompasses a range of different practices that are likely to fall under the remit of multiple agencies, it is not evident how suitable current regulatory frameworks are for addressing the harms associated with the growth of DDC. This paper takes a first step toward addressing that question by mapping an emergent regulatory “ecosystem” for DDC in the particular case of the UK. Specifically, we collect and analyse interview data from a range of regulators working directly or indirectly in the election campaigns and communication arena. Our analysis shows that while privacy violations associated with DDC are seen by regulators to be largely well covered by current legislation, other potential harms are given lesser to no priority. These gaps appear to be due to regulators lacking either the powers or the incentives to intervene.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Barclay, Gibson and Dommett.