Weaponisation Of Technology In Democracy
- ThePoint
- Aug 10, 2020
- 2 min read
By Ariana Biniam
Weaponisation of technology on democracy
On the 8th of November 2016 Donald Trump, a real-estate tycoon, was elected as the 45th President of the United States of America.
It was an outcome that goes against all popular opinions of political analysts, pollsters and the general public with extraordinary implications on foreign and domestic policies.
Since the inauguration, the Trump administration has been over-shadowed by allegations of electoral intervention by Russia. Many people still do not utterly understand how it happened without having a war with the alleged foreign power or a single bullet being shot.
What is foreign electoral intervention and what happened?
Foreign electoral intervention is the efforts of other governments to control, influence and ultimately change the outcome of elections and referendums in other countries to suit their agendas. This is done openly or secretly through hacking, artificial intelligence (AI), social media and Big Data (data-harvesting) among many other methods.
This article will focus on how the Russian government influenced the last American election of 2016.
1. Cyberattacks: Russian intelligence officers launched a wave of cyberattacks against several political targets inside the United States. This is done through “targeting state election infrastructure to delete or change voter data". Whilst more still needs to be done to prove the allegation, the semblance that the idea of Russia or any foreign agent being able to change the results of voters puts democracy at risk.
2. Social Media: The Times reported the utilisation of “information warfare” against the US public, beginning in 2014, through a “troll farm”, which bred propaganda videos and used false information to alter voters’ perception on not only Hillary Clinton, but also the Democratic Party itself.
The Western intelligence community believe that the combination of these tools influenced the 2016 election in favour of Donald Trump. They say, ‘feeding’ false information through “bots and fake accounts”, can lead to reducing voting (voter suppression if misinformation causes people to stay home instead of voting), lack of rule of law and ultimately, allowing unexpected people to assume positions of power in an undemocratic and illegal way. This is not the first time Russia has been accused of meddling with evidence it had intervened with the 2014 Scottish Independence elections alongside the 2016 EU referendum. The 2020 US election is underway with a fierce race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump and the intelligence community believe the Russians are at it again. This time, the Russians have become more innovative to undermine public confidence in the American electoral systems permanently. Western democracy must improve their cyber security to ensure the integrity of their democratic systems. However, some Western economies should have a look upon themselves as they are not completely innocent. The US and the UK have been influencing elections for decades in the Middle East and Africa to name a few; the lines become blurred when there is one rule for the powerful and another for the powerless.
Key Takeaways
· Elections are being tampered with
· Done through Cyberattacks and Social Media
· Could affect 2020 presidential election
References
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