Comfortably at their home institution, the DiCED team recently presented at the 2024 Elections, Public Opinion and Parties conference (which took place between 11 and 13 September). Filip Bialy and Rachel Gibson presented the following paper as part of the panel “New modes of campaigning”, and Rachel Gibson and Stephanie Luke presented the paper “Taking Back Control for Whom? Identifying the primary drivers behind the new UK Data Protection and Digital Information Bill.

Data-Driven Authenticity? Unpacking the rise and relevance of relational organising in Digital Campaigning in the Polish Parliamentary and US Presidential Campaign

By Filip Bialy and Rachel Gibson

Abstract

The prevailing narratives about contemporary political campaigning emphasise the increasing reliance on digital tools as a means of automating and scaling up campaigns capacity for micro-targeting messages at scale, and the associated problems of AI-powered disinformation. A less well observed but growing trend within digital campaigning is a contrasting drive to make political communication more authentic and organic – through reliance on influencers and a revival of the two-step flow. In this paper we concentrate on this latter trend and particularly a new form of ‘relational organizing’ which shifts the focus from elite influencers to volunteer activists who engage in more subtle and stealth-based methods on behalf of the campaign, such as seeding messages in social media groups and online discussion fora. We do so through in-depth examination of the 2023 Polish parliamentary and ongoing US 2024 Presidential campaign. Drawing on a combination of in-depth interviews with parties’ digital campaign directors and external consultants, and observational data from media reports we investigate and compare this growing trend across an established and newer democracy. In particular we look at the extent to which this new tactic is being used across countries and parties and its perceived effectiveness. In broader conceptual terms we assess what relational organising means for the future direction of campaigns. Does it represent a ‘backlash’ against the increasing data-driven, AI dependent nature of campaigns? Or should it be understood more strategically as a deliberate tactic designed to augment and authenticate the former, by weaving the campaign message into everday forms of political communication.

Taking Back Control for Whom? Identifying the primary drivers behind the new UK Data Protection and Digital Information Bill

By Rachel Gibson and Stephanie Luke

Abstract

The automatic lapse of EU legislation in December 2023 initiated development of a new Data Protection and Digital Information Bill designed to replace the 2018 EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). While the stated aim of the new bill is to update and simplify current data protection provisions and remove unnecessary burdens of compliance for UK organizations, critics contend it weakens the current law in several major ways. Notably it widens the range and purposes of personal data processing that can legitimately be undertaken by parties and other actors in the ‘public interest’. We examine these arguments, focusing particularly on two inter-related questions. First, to what extent does the new bill weaken GDPR, particularly within the electoral context? Second, if GDPR is being diluted, what is motivating these changes? We theorize five core ‘drivers’ that lie behind the recent changes to GDPR – strategic electoral gain, partisan or ideological principle and cultural norms. Using a range of primary and secondary elite and public opinion data sources we critically assess these arguments. Specifically we draw on EU and UK parliamentary debates, party manifestos and politicians’ statements from press reports since the passage of the 1988 UK Data Protection Act, and original public opinion data measuring UK voter preferences for the regulation of personal data use in campaigns. We use our findings to draw conclusions as to which of the three explanations is most credible in accounting for the recent regulatory changes and what this means for voter privacy in both the immediate and longer-term electoral context. 

Featured image retrieved from www.citysuites.com/en

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