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Table of contents
Nowadays, many people use social media. We have seen its impact in politics as well. Through social media, we learn about all the activities and processes of politics. The primary task of social media is to provide information about events occurring in various locations. Social media also provides information on government activities, parliamentary procedures, opposition viewpoints, and alternative policies. In this article, we are going to explore how social media is impacting democracy. Before knowing the impact of social media on politics, let us know what social media is.
What is social media?
Social media is a vast online network that keeps people all over the world connected through the Internet. This online network is called a social media platform. This platform mainly includes websites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Telegram, and WhatsApp. On this platform, people create their profiles and share their information, ideas, etc. This social communication network is known as Social Media.
Through this app, people can share their photos, videos, suggestions, documents, etc. publicly with their friends and family. The advantage of social media is that through it, information can be exchanged with a single click. Some people believe that social media is dangerous for democracy while some people believe that it is beneficial for democracy.
The positive impact on politics:
Election campaign :
In the last few years, it has been seen that social media is playing an important role in elections. Social media is being adopted as the mainstream of political campaigning in all countries. All political parties use social media to express their views and respond to fake allegations by the opposition party. The activities of politics and politicians are visible on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.
Facebook feature Facebook Live has emerged as an important medium of election campaigning for some time now. Apart from this, big leaders are running their fan clubs on social media. Where they share their daily political activities with their followers. Many big politicians and political parties have a Public Relations (PR) team; their job is to create good content, whether it is video or audio. After this, they publish that content on social media.
After this, the followers of politicians increase. More people begin to follow them. This had a significant impact on their political career. Politics and democracy have been significantly impacted by social media. It is no surprise that in today’s time, political parties across the country and the world have learned to understand the psychography of social media and use it to their advantage.
Because millions and billions of people can use social media for political campaigns, the number of people following you on social media shows how many people support you. Similarly, the more people like, share, and retweet your ideas, the more easily they will accept them. The magic of social media was also seen in India’s Lok Sabha elections in 2014,2019 and 2024.
Political discussion :
Earlier, people used to read newspapers or go to debates; only then could they discuss their ideas. However, common people can now share their thoughts and opinions with the public instantly through social media. Nowadays, many live streams are broadcast on news channels and websites, allowing a large number of people to connect in one place and share their opinions through comments. Nowadays, politicians can connect directly with common people through live streams, giving them a platform to share their opinions.
The negative impact of social media on democracy:
Social media not only has its benefits but sometimes it is also misused, due to which many people become opponents of democracy.
Expensive marketing & Manipulating people:
If a political party becomes more active on social media, then it can connect with more and more people. Due to this, people’s thoughts and opinions started changing, and they started supporting that party more. Such examples exist everywhere in the world. According to media reports, during the US presidential election in 2016, Cambridge Analytical Company extracted information worth more than 5 crores from Facebook and used it to campaign for US presidential candidate Donald Trump. Then Donald Trump won the elections and became President of America. According to an estimate, a deep impact of social media was seen on about 40–50% of seats in these elections.
Spreading fake news :
During the 2016 US elections, Russian entities created fake Facebook pages and campaigned. As a result, people were manipulated. This negatively impacts democracy. Social media gives people a platform to express their views, but sometimes people misuse it.
Conclusion
The impact of social media on democracy may be stated in one basic fact: it magnifies human intent, both positively and negatively. When it works well, it gives us the freedom to express ourselves and act. At worst, technology makes it possible for people to spread false information and destroy democracy.
