Big Data — Who influences your vote?

The 2020 election just finished last week. Joe Biden was elected president of the US. First of all, I want to express my admiration for the two candidates. They are the same age as my grandfather, but they have never given up on their dreams and worked hard. In the last few days of the election, the two grandpas must have suffered unimaginable psychological pressure. In the meantime, one question came up from my mind — What influences people’s votes?

Nowadays, it is very common to use big data to affect consumers’ behavior. Some e-commerce companies will collect consumers’ data. Based on the data and the results from the analysis, decision-makers will put forward some strategies to affect consumers’ behavior and improve revenue.

I am thinking maybe a similar idea was used for the election so many times. We have never seen that the invisible hands, but somehow the hands might gradually change our decisions. We thought we could rationally vote for the candidate we support and we will rarely feel regret our choice.

True Story — Brexit!

Brexit (a portmanteau of “British” and “exit”) is the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Following a UK-wide referendum in June 2016, in which 52% voted in favor of leaving the EU and 48% voted to remain a member, the UK Government, which was then led by Theresa May formally notified the EU of the country’s intention to withdraw on 29 March 2017, beginning the Brexit process.

Behind the referendum, politicians who support Brexit worked with a tech company and used big data to influence people’s votes. So what did they do?

They obtained people’s information and tried to find more useful insights. That information can be people’s occupations, location, gender, race, and their online behavior. People’s online behavior data can be obtained from so many different open-source APIs such as Reddit, Twitter, or other ways.

Those Brexit advocates used polls and online questionnaires to understand people’s concerns — why Brexit or why not Brexit.

They use sophisticated algorithms to help politicians with micro-targeting-voter targeting and targeted advertising. The purpose of these two methods is to amplify the advantages of Brexit to cater to the inner needs and emotional resonance of the masses. This method can dig out potential voters for them.

If you are interested in this story, I recommend you watch this movie — “Brexit: The Uncivil War”. This movie is filmed based on the truth and this movie also reminds me that big data can help us to understand this world well but also can influence this world in different ways — a good way or a bad way!

What can we learn from this event?

Besides elections, our choices in daily life may also be affected by big data. For example, various advertisements before Black Friday, various precise advertisements on YouTube based on your online behavior, and some cookies. All of those are from the hands that we can’t see! Our daily actions in the past will change our future choices. Technologies and big data can change the world, but it does not mean that the change is correct or reasonable.