Fears raised on ‘ Wild West’ of online politics

Democracy challenged, experts warn

THE “WILD West” of online political campaigning presents an urgent challenge for democracy and needs reforming, according to experts who calculate that internet spending has massively increased.

Digital spending by political parties is likely to have increased by more than 50 per cent in 2019 compared to the previous general election in 2017, according to the analysis by researchers.

Kate Dommett, a digital campaigning researcher at Sheffield University, and Sam Power, a corruption analysis lecturer at Sussex University, said it remained unclear how much was being spent, what voters were seeing and how their data was used.

They undertook research to estimate around £ 6m was spent on Facebook and nearly £ 3m on Google by the three main UK parties in the General Election in December last year.

The Conservatives

“invested

dramatically more” in Google than other parties in the election, which saw the Tories win an 80- strong majority, their report published yesterday said.

Analysis of advertising archives revealed the Tories spent £ 1.7m on Google, “dwarfing” the £ 873,300 spent by Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

“We argue that the new ‘ Wild West’ of political campaigning presents an urgent challenge for democracy, but also an opportunity to boost public confidence in the integrity of elections,” the researchers wrote.

“The changing political landscape creates exciting opportunities for different ways of doing politics and enhanced avenues for citizen engagement.

“We must build a framework for online campaigning which brings out the best in us, and which engenders public confidence. But to make the most of these opportunities and meet these challenges we urgently need reform.”

They made a series of recommendations including requiring campaigners to provide the Electoral Commission with more details and meaningful invoices of spending.

The elections watchdog also needs strengthened powers to obtain information outside of an investigation, they argued.

The Electoral Commission was contacted for comment.