16/05/17 - Inquiry launched into targeting of UK voters through social media (72)

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/17/inquiry-launched-into-how-uk-parties-target-voters-through-social-media

This article is about how the information commissioner, of Facebook, has launched an investigation into the way UK political parties target voters through social media with a warning which if they were to send messages based on politics to others which is linked to their own data, could be a way in which they are breaking the law. Labour and the Conservatives are understood to have set aside about £1m each to spend on advertising directly to voters through Facebook. This allows them to target specific messages to groups of voters defined by data collected from their activity on the platform. Denham Elizabeth, the information commisioner said the investigation into the use of data analytics by political campaigners was a “high priority” and was intended “to uphold the rights of individuals and ensure that political campaigners and companies providing services to political parties operate within UK law”. She has assembled a dedicated team including researchers, technologists and lawyers for the inquiry, which will take several months.

• “Digital campaigning techniques help ensure that the public are informed, and will drive up democratic participation across society.” Labour did not respond to a request for comment.
• A Cambridge Analytica spokesman said: “We are in touch with the ICO and we’re happy to help them with their investigation into the entire use of data analytics in politics. Cambridge Analytica had no involvement in last year’s EU referendum.”
• However, in a note of caution, she added: “Our investigation may reveal that some of these allegations are not true and maybe there is the capability of data analytics to micro-target people but it’s actually not happening.”

In my opinion, I believe that this is a positive for both parties (Labour and Conservative  & Facebook) as they could both potentially be able to gain more votes or more users. The advertisement can be beneficial for Facebook as their revenue can show an increase. Furthermore, the fact that they are going to advertise the voting system on social media means that people who wouldn't usually pay attention to the news and want to vote, can potentially be persuaded by the advertisement and therefore may act upon it and start to vote.