The use of Big Data in political elections

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Brazil's election season is approaching, and in October, the representatives for the positions of president, governor, senator, and federal and state deputies will be redefined. In this context, it is important to understand the strategies used in political campaigns, especially the application of technologies based on big data and artificial intelligence, which have become crucial to the success of these campaigns. In general, voters are analyzed and segmented, allowing candidates' speeches to be aligned with the profiles of these decision-makers, seeking to direct content to audiences that are most receptive to them. As an example of what happens in this scenario, we can mention Cambridge Analytica (CA), a political consulting firm that worked for Donald Trump's campaign in 2016. According to a report by a former CA employee to the British newspaper “Guardian”, the company has already worked on more than 200 elections around the world.

One of the first steps in this type of strategy is mapping malta number dataset profiles, in order to segment voters and develop specific actions for each one. Using artificial intelligence software, for example, which compiles public information and identifies people's profiles, candidates' teams can guide political speeches, boosting voting intentions. Still using CA as an example, it searched for user data on internet platforms, applying techniques that exploited people's weaknesses, according to a columnist for the “Guardian”. Potential supporters are identified, a context of what motivates them is outlined and specific messages are created for different groups based on what they want to hear.

In addition to mapping general information about voters, tracking profiles makes it possible to identify which issues are most sensitive to each group. Voters can often change their voting intentions for a particular candidate if they hear something from him that is very different from their own values. In this way, electoral committees can adapt their speeches to each type of person and, in more extreme cases, there may be “psychological operations”. According to Christopher Wylie, a former employee of the British group Strategic Communication Laboratories who reported the illegal use of Facebook user data, these operations seek to change people’s beliefs and political thinking through “information dominance”, a technique that spreads rumors, misinformation and fake news.

After all, it is understood that the maximum optimization of results in an electoral campaign occurs when there is a balance between the appropriate channel, the message transmitted, as well as the tone used in this speech. Brazil, in relation to the United States, uses technology differently in electoral campaigns, according to Luciane Antoniutti, an expert in the use of big data in elections. There, the precision in identifying the population's interests is greater and citizen data is more available, with real consent. Therefore, it is essential to understand that, no matter how much access there is to voter data, it will be used to segment and direct strategies to the public, configuring risky actions, regardless of whether they involve simple communication strategies or more extreme practices.