Workshop Report: How Digitalisation shapes Elections and Democracies

The Weizenbaum Institute (WI) and the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) joined their expertise to discuss pressing issues on digitalisation and how it shapes democracy - particularly following the super election year 2024. The aim of the workshop was to exchange interdisciplinary research insights and discuss possible solutions, but also to identify further common fields of research.

The workshop started with a warm welcome by Victoria Nash (OII) and a short introduction from Christoph Neuberger (WI).

Political Campaign Exposure and the Transformative Role of Digital Platforms

Taking a closer look at political campaign exposure and the transformative role of digital platforms in political communication, the first panel moderated by Jakob Ohme (WI) discussed how political actors use these platforms for campaigns. Felix Simon and Richard Fletcher from Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism debated the role of media especially in close elections, while Amogh Dhar Sharma (University of Oxford) shed a light on the surprising results for Modi during the 2024 election. Licinia Güttel from OII brought up the example of Indonesia, where politicians have used AI-generated images to appear more likeable. Sharma added that AI was used for multi-language campaigning. But the panel agreed that AI did not seem to affect the election as much as some have feared. Concerning the power of platforms, the panel discussed the Meta’s retreat from fact-checking, as well as Musk’s political agenda with X. Even if Russian interference in the EU elections did not materialize to the feared extent, still the Romanian presidential election was cancelled amid concerns of foreign influence, particularly via TikTok. This led to a debate on the possibilities and challenges to research exact media effects and voter mobilisation, especially with regard to foreign interference.

Dynamics of Digital Mobilization and Interference in Platform Ecosystems

In the age of digitalisation and AI, the struggle over legitimate knowledge and mobilisation by means of disinformation, conspiracy theories, and other forms of networked opinion manipulation has gained considerable momentum. Extremist and anti-democratic actors strategically use the affordances of digital communication and AI to spread their political ideas and content within and across platforms and media. In the second panel on dynamics of digital mobilization and interference in platform ecosystems, moderator Annett Heft (WI) was joined by Nicole Stremlau (University of Oxford), who provided insights from Africa. She brought up the example  of Uganda. In a recent conflict on blocking of political content, Uganda’s government had criticized Facebook/ Meta for taking influence in election processes. Ethiopian Prof Meareg Amare Abreha was shot dead in 2021 after death threats on Facebook, which lead to a $2bn lawsuit filed against Meta at a High Court in Nairobi in Kenya. Stremlau raised the concern that (authoritarian) governments have different negotiation power against the big tech companies. Co-panelist Lisa-Maria Neudert (OII), brought up the aspect of how to use regulation in a supporting way to generate beneficial outcomes. Martha Stolze (WI) focussed on Russian gendered disinformation and chances of debunking it, which tends to work more effectively in western language. Looking at AI with regard to mobilization in election campaigns, the example of Germany showed that the rate of AI generated visuals was so far estimated below 5% during its 2025 federal election.

In his public keynote speech on “Online politics in India and the US: what went wrong?” Ralph Schroeder took a close look at online politics in India and the US during the elections since 2014. Both Modi and Trump relied on non-gatekept online media for campaigning in an extended public arena. This allowed counter-publics to challenge elites and traditional media and has given rise to populism in both countries. But digitalisation is only one aspect among others that influence the rise of populism. As a potential solution, Schroeder suggested restoring the reliability of the public arena; countering exclusionism as well as anti-elitism, and supporting pluralism - which also requires greater responsiveness of elites to citizens.

Algorithms, Online Disinformation and Hate Speech during Elections

On the second day, Elizaveta Kuznetsova (WI) started the workshop and together with Mohsen Mosleh, Alexandra Pavliuc  and Marcel Schliebs from OII with the panel on algorithms, online disinformation and Hate Speech during elections. They examined the acute challenges of online disinformation and hate speech in electoral processes. A more hostile environment with threats, harassment and gender disinformation increases a growing number of particular female candidates retreat from politics or not engage in the first place. Foreign misinformation campaigns on platforms interfere in elections and politics, as shown by the current US administration picking up Russian propaganda narratives. The panel also shed light on the creative way of online diplomacy from Ukrainian citizens to counter Russian war-time propaganda. Studies of seven major platforms showed that users in general are more likely to engage with problematic content and that spillover-effects between platforms should be studied in more detail. This includes questions on why people fall for problematic content and why it is shared as well as how interventions could look like. The panellists agreed that while the DSA is slowly coming into play, it lacks binding force in some regards.

Public Policy Responses to Digital Communications challenges in Elections

The final panel discussed the public policy responses to digital communications challenges in elections. Moderator Clara Iglesias Keller (WI) raised the challenges of data protection, micro targeting and free speech for regulating the digitalised public sphere. She underlined that jurisdiction approaches vary between countries. Diyi Liu (OII) brought insights on elections in Indonesia and Pakistan, Jacob Rowbottom (University of Oxford) on the UK election, Prathm Juneja (OII) included examples from several countries while Clara Keller focused on Brazil. They stressed the need to look closer into how AI effects elections, to catch up on regulation now - before tech will grow in influence. An essential aspect stays keeping track of financial flows for political campaigns online and offline. The panel discussed the shift to permanent campaigning in the digital era. Disinformation aims at discrediting not only politicians but also the electoral processes and democracy as a system. Law regulations lack behind technological innovations and the DSA was discussed as being very broad, s in need of further clarification. Cases discussed during the panel showed that courts are mostly doing the work on regulation, rather than parliaments, which fuels questions of democratic control. But panelists noted that countries’ governments also highly differ in their power to regulate big tech companies. Another aspect on regulation concerns the political positioning of tech companies and their platforms as currently observed on X.

Conclusion

The four panels and the keynote gave a lot of food for thought from a variety of perspectives. In his final remarks, Christoph Neuberger (WI) shared some concluding remarks and observations. The rise of right-wing parties and the many political upheavals of recent times have raised the question of the extent to which this is an effect of platform communication and AI. A deeper look into theories, methods and access to data is needed, as well as expanded concepts on measuring effects to get a full picture. Possible solutions for the problems identified could be content moderation and self-regulation of the platforms, but discussed exampled showed disinterest of companies to do enough. Law must constantly adjust to new developments and sharpen categories like „systemic risk“ (DSA) or „opinion power“. As an alternative, a European platform that fosters values of liberal democracy was briefly discussed. To close off the event, Victoria Nash (OII) joined Christoph Neuberger in thanking the participants for the insightful debates and looked forward to future exchange and collaboration.

The keynote of Ralph Schroeder can be watched on the OII website: https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/news-events/videos/online-politics-in-india-and-the-us-what-went-wrong/ or YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXsp6bvIiOA