DEMOKRATIJA U ALGORITMU: POLITIČKA KOMUNIKACIJA I PODACI O LIČNOSTI

Abstract

Since the emergence of the first political parties in the mid-20th century, it has been clear that the political competitiveness of collective entities will depend on their ability to identify valid communication channels for placing messages to voters. The emergence of the Internet, modern digital technologies, social networks, but also artificial intelligence (AI) tools has marked a technological revolution in the domain of political communication. In this context, the question is justified: are digital platforms and AI tools today only channels of communication or is political power being imperceptibly shifted from institutions to algorithms? In this paper, the author analyzes the modalities in which personal data is used in political communication and examines the abuses and negative social phenomena that can arise in this process. Modern forms of political advertising are accompanied by hyper-personalization, which, at first glance, is not controversial because it offers the user content in accordance with his interests. However, the personalization of political messages in practice undermines their universality, which can call into question the coherence and unity of the political program. Taking advantage of digital technologies, political actors replace traditional information with microtargeting, whereby the electorate ceases to be treated as a subject, but as an object of exploitation, which is not informed, but manipulated. The main support for successful microtargeting is the personal data that citizens, consciously or unconsciously, leave in the digital space. This data enables psychographic profiling and segmentation of the electorate, for the purpose of their mobilization. The author therefore starts from the research question: can modern technologies make democracy more efficient or do they threaten to trap it in an algorithm?