The 2014 general elections saw the emergence of social media and data analytics in designing and predicting elections results. Since then the role of data, both good and bad, in elections has been in discussion. Apar Gupta, a Delhi-based lawyer who advocates data privacy, spoke on the significance of Big data in predicting and deciding the election results during the two-day-long Youth Ki Awaaz Summit on September 1 at Dr BR Ambedkar International Center in New Delhi.
Apar Gupta is a practising lawyer and contributing author on several media platforms. He has been actively generating awareness on the increasing importance of data and the need to protect it. In light of the recent controversy over the misuse of data by British political research firm Cambridge Analytica (CA) to influence the voter opinion, Gupta shared his insights on how data can swing the upcoming general elections
The 2014 general elections saw the emergence of social media and data analytics in designing and predicting elections results. Since then the role of data, both good and bad, in elections has been in discussion. Apar Gupta, a Delhi-based lawyer who advocates data privacy, spoke on the significance of Big data in predicting and deciding the election results during the two-day-long Youth Ki Awaaz Summit on September 1 at Dr BR Ambedkar International Center in New Delhi.
Apar Gupta is a practising lawyer and contributing author on several media platforms. He has been actively generating awareness on the increasing importance of data and the need to protect it. In light of the recent controversy over the misuse of data by British political research firm Cambridge Analytica (CA) to influence the voter opinion, Gupta shared his insights on how data can swing the upcoming general elections.
“The content we consume online, like fake news videos, they impact our political beliefs. Now after watching this video, the suggested bar will show you the content of a certain political ideology. This information is aggregated at the backend by several platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp. This data is out for sale to the political parties. Political advertisements are the biggest market today,” Gupta revealed.
Over the past few years, there has been increased perception management by the political parties with a hand in glove association with mainstream media giants. Such instances have largely gone unchecked.
“Election commission monitors only elections, and political parties have remained out of any regulations. As a result, for the past four years, the country has been in a constant mode of electioneering and propaganda. For example, trends on the internet are created to divert your attention and gather data that you may not have agreed to share,” said Gupta.
Commenting on the social media trolls, Gupta said, “Harassment and intimidation on social media platforms happen using certain personal information.”
Gupta further claimed that political parties use the personal information to target information to the people and thereby influence their political choices.
“It’s a drip method where political parties make 360-degree profile of the people based on their online activities. On the basis of this, an interaction programme is formulated with a targeted message to influence voter choices and beliefs,” Gupta said.
“It’s very easy to say that we are being manipulated and many things aren’t under control. However, this debate requires patience and policy intervention. There needs to be a greater amount of transparency in how your data is being gathered,” he added.