Can technology influence political elections?

Translated by Alessandra Fumagalli 

In the last decades, technology revolutionized our way of communication and information. Electronic devices, like smartphones and computers, thanks to their simplicity and rapidity, have evolved into our first source of information. However, if information published in newspapers or on television should be examined and selected by experts, who have to verify the facts and the sources, this does not happen on the Internet. Every user, indeed, could be able to share fake news and spread it all around the world in just a few hours. 

On one hand, digitalization has increased and simplified the access to the information and it has made possible a better involvement of people, but on the other hand it has raised some risks, like disinformation and fake news, which can negatively influence the free thought of users. 

Politics and technology 

With the spread of social media, the politics information went from the television debates and political meetings to a more dynamic and direct communication through online platforms. Politicians use social media in order to catch electors’ attention and reach the young people that prefer this way of communication.

However, the use of these platforms, where political communications are neither filtered nor verified, can mislead the electors, influencing the normal course of the democratic process. 

Open AI, known to have developed ChatGPT, has recently individuated and blocked a disinformation’s campaign led by Iran. The operation, known as “Storm-2035”, took advantage of the chatbot in order to create online contents, aiming at spreading confusion about some delicate themes, like the presidential elections, civil rights, and on-going armed conflicts. Hackers created some websites and social accounts, where they share manipulated contents and fake news. Moreover, last week, those hackers had bothered some important people in Washington DC. According to FBI’s declarations, Trump’s counselor, Roger Stone, would have been a victim of a malicious email that had led possible criminals to take his personal account. The news of a mired attack on American politics came also from Microsoft and Google, which have confirmed, through an online publication, an attempt by some hacker to bother lots of politicians and diplomats near Biden and Trump. 

Another AI product, which put in danger the normal course of the elections, is the so called “deepfake”: an audible, video or photographic content, generated by the Artificial Intelligence, aiming at mimicking the physical aspect of a person, in order to mislead the public. 

Deepfake and American elections

The United States is about to enter the campaign, which sees as main characters Kamala Harris, the current USA’s vice president, and Donald Trump, ex President. November 5th, when the Americans are called to vote, is approaching and arguable propaganda events are more frequent. In the last months, indeed, some fake photos have been published and they had an important effect on the campaign, raising several complaints. 

One of the most recent events is the sharing of some photos on Truth, Trump’s personal social network, where a photo of Taylor Swift was artificially reproduced, suggesting to vote for him. Despite these fake photos being rapidly declared as fake, by the singer’s entourage, they have reached lots of users, who believe that the candidate has the artist’s support and influencing people’s opinions. 

Another unpleasant event occurred in January, during the primary elections in New Hampshire. The electors had received an automatic call where the artificial intelligence, pretending to be Joe Biden, had obliged them not to go to the polling stations, giving up the right of vote. 

In August 2023, a survey carried out by YouGov among the Americans highlighted a high rate of worrying concerning AI. Data show that 60% of the participants are extremely worried about the diffusion of deepfake audio and video made by AI. Moreover, 78% of citizens are worried about the use of AI software for the diffusion of political propaganda. 

In light of these unpleasant events, it is clear that there is more than one negative aspect linked to deepfake. The major risk is focused on the previous time of the elections, when newspaper and electoral staff, having little time to verify facts and contents, could accidentally share some information that could result in disinformation, potentially influencing, negatively, citizens’ opinions. 

In order to avoid these events to happen, some online platforms acted, pressured also by institutions and public opinion,  in order to improve the contents’ verification systems, in order to obscure fake news. Meanwhile, lots of independent organizations have been created, and they control information and try to sensitize users about the necessity to analyze the sources and verify, in a critical way, the news they read online. 

Digitalization has lots of benefits, but it also has some drawbacks that have to be controlled. The legislative process, started out by the institution aiming at disciplining the AI is a step forward, concerning the public’s security and sensitivity. Both the collaboration between social networks, which are daily trying to limit disinformation, and the users’ critical view that look for information online, are fundamental.  

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