Author: Rajesh Tandon
Elections to Bihar Assembly and Canadian Parliament are taking place this month. A casual view may suggest that these two are widely different contests. Yet, they have one major and novel similarity---use of social media for campaigning. Twitter and Facebook accounts have been opened by rustic Lalu Yadav in Bihar as well as Justin Trudeau in Toronto. The traditional print media is no longer the dominant medium of communication on the campaign trail. Photos posted on Facebook from Khagaria (in Bihar) and Richmond (near Vancouver) carry the campaign messages far more effectively than a local newspaper or TV channel. Early morning Tweets of 140 characters from Amit Shah and Lalu Yadav in Bihar set the stage for political debates during the rest of the day. Without Twitter, Canadian politicians also fear irrelevance.
This method of electoral campaigning and political messaging was first used at a large scale by President Barack Obama in America. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made it a fine art during his campaigns and official communications. We now ‘hear and see’ politicians on Twitter and Facebook. They are ‘hooked’ to the web as much as the electorate is. Face-to-face rallies and meetings are important, but social media and web messaging cannot be ignored any longer in either Canada or Bihar.
In pursuing social media, web-based communication and access to smart phone users, access to ‘big’ data is crucial for effective and comprehensive outreach to voters across various segments—women & men, young and old, rural & urban, employed or self-employed, etc. etc. Ethnicity, caste and religion are also important variables in effective market segmentation of voters (and of course consumers). Yadav, Mahadalit and Muslim are important voter categories in Bihar; Asian, Hispanic and new immigrant are important categories in Canada. How do political leaders, parties and their campaign managers reach out to these different segments of voters in order to target their messages to their specific realities? In the same way that a multi-national company selling shampoo targets different segments of consumers globally?
This way of targeting is enabled by the new technology of ‘search engines’. Such ‘big’ data is accessible through search engines like Google. While there are many search engines, there is near monopoly of Google in many countries and markets. Google controls 70% of data sets in Canada, and 95% in India (90% in Europe and 70% in America too). And, this monopolistic, anti-competition behaviour of Google is under investigation in Canada and India (and Europe).
Therefore, harnessing the power of Google search helps political parties, candidates and their managers to identify, sort, classify and target different categories of voters with different preferences. Marketing the candidate and the party to voters is thus enabled by harnessing this technology. News, messages, visuals and appeals can also be spun through these media from a centralised election room, and watched, read and listened to on millions of smart phones, tablets and laptops.
What if Google’s search engine was tweaked to favour one candidate? Companies, organisations, products and services utilise Google’s ‘ad- word’ technology so that they appear ahead of the competition when a consumer undertakes a google search. The prevailing wisdom is that if your product or company does not appear on the first page of google search, then it does not exist for the consumer.
Now imagine that similar technology is used to privilege one candidate and party over others? Imagine if Google can use its search engine technology to obstruct political competition, as it does commercial competitors? Imagine if sample sizes of opinion polls and their analyses are similarly ‘tweaked’ in google search? Imagine if trend analyses of voters’ preferences are ‘tweaked’ to show surging support for a particular candidate and party?
If Canadians are debating these issues in their current parliamentary elections, should Indians not be debating the same in the context of Bihar (and other) elections too? Should we not worry a bit more, and scrutinise even more, the pervasive and dominant presence of search engine technology controlling big data, and our views and lives?
Winning in the next decades may require regular visits to Silicon Valley headquarters of Facebook and Google. Only then, one can google one’s way to victory.
Dr Rajesh Tandon
President,PRIA, New Delhi October 15, 2015
PRIA’s MobiliseHER team traveled to Bangalore during the week of June, 10 – 14, 2024. The aim of the visit was to gain relevant insights into the civil society ecosystem in Bangalore and meet different organisations to understand the city through a lens of gender and inclusive mobility.
Working at PRIA, often leads us to various cities across the country. Each trip is an opportunity to witness firsthand the challenges and triumphs of different communities.
Mr. Yedukrishnan V has recently joined PRIA after gaining valuable experience in the development sector. Drawing from his journey in the social sector and personal encounters in Kerala, he emphasises the importance of participatory governance and research in empowering marginalised communities.'
