What is Big Data and How has it become political?

Data has been a hot topic over the last few years. As more humans continue to become more connected all over the world, technological advancements have created a massive amount of data being stored across the Internet. We have seen major tech companies such as Facebook come under fire for its lack of transparency towards how they are distributing user information. So, why has Big Data caused such a stir of controversy from Silicon Valley to Capitol Hill?

Before we can see the impact that Big Data has been playing in the political sphere, we must first understand what Big Data is and how it has grown to become a dynamic force. As computers have been able to increase its processing speed exponentially so, the datasets which are simply collections of data stored on a server have seen an overwhelming growth in size. Thus, leading to a more sophisticated approach to search and analyze large amounts of data using complex algorithms.

You might be thinking what exactly is in this pool of data that has led to such a ferocious public debate. As explained in Big Data and the Future of Privacy, “Data collection–from medicine, financial institutions, social networking, and many other fields–has exploded over the past decade. And storage costs for this data have plummeted, which makes it easier to justify holding onto data instead of discarding it.”(1) The collecting, storing, and interpreting of data makes it easier to identify and classify who this individual is. Therefore, giving some the means to skew information to favor their interest and pockets.

Data gathering has been around way before personal computers were available to most Americans. Data collected over a span of time has brought us innovation and breakthroughs in many areas. It has allowed climate scientists to study the causes of Earth’s rising temperatures. Its given cancer researchers the ability to set health guidelines, and economists means to predict market falls to rebounds. This is also applicable for a business owner to market and meet customer needs or for a political candidate to reach a specific voter demographic in an election season.

Speaking of politicking, as mentioned in Vox from NBC’s Chuck Todd and Carrie Dann, “Big data revolutionized the way American politicians win elections. In the process, it broke American politics.” They go on to explain, that, “This allows campaigns to identify their most likely voters and target them with ads and favorable content. The result, increasingly, is that candidates talk only to voters disposed to agree with them, as opposed to persuading those who don’t.” (1)

In light of this current and past presidential election, the political process and persuasion has become more polarized in leaning to the far-right or to the far-left. As the article states, this creates a “governing crisis” because these elected officials do not feel obligated to work across the aisle. In turn, this makes them have favorable prospects of getting re-elected.

Over the recent years, the question that many have been asking from political pundits to registered voters is who we hold responsible for this daunting and divisive behavior sweeping across the country. There is no single source as this has been bubbling up for some time. However, I believe that the common idea among all is that these heightened sensibilities come from a one-sided point of view. The causes of this can be correlated to our overreliance and overconsumption of online activity for the news, shopping, and entertainment. Big data has made it more possible with less effort to target a certain demographic and send some of them falling down the rabbit hole. Along with an efficient algorithm, it can traverse through this data to search and recommend products or content endlessly.

As I mentioned above, Facebook, the world’s largest social networking site, faced scrutiny for its platform becoming a hotbed for domestic to foreign influence and interference in the 2016 presidential election. According to the Pew Research center, around seven-in-ten U.S. adults (69%) use Facebook, among them, around three-quarters (74%) visit the site at least once a day, and around four-in-ten U.S. adults (43%) get news from Facebook. Around the 2016 election season there were reports that users were encountering fake, sensational newsfeeds online. It was uncovered in 2018 from a whistleblower who worked for a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, that employees misused Facebook’s user profile data. In turn, the whistleblower alleges that they spread false political messages which had psychological consequences. This placed a spotlight on Facebook’s accountability in sharing user information to third parties. The overwhelming concern from both parties pushed Mark Zuckerberg to testify before the U.S. Senate in 2018. During this hearing, the Senate drilled Zuckerberg on a range of issues from its privacy policies, security tools, monetization of personal data, and political collusion.

As the tech industry has been booming with new apps being developed and popularized every year, this makes for a new scale of problems for lawmakers to protect its citizens and still offer a free market with limited regulation. Solving these mounting challenges will take willful participation from tech giants to the government. What these data sets offer can be useful in reaching and representing the values, needs and concerns of all Americans. However, we have witnessed how this data, in the wrong hands, can undermine the political process and disturb the minds of many. The future of Big Data will only continue to become more powerful in shaping our lives and our democracy.

Sources

1. “Big Data and the Future of Privacy.” https://epic.org/privacy/big-data/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2020.       
2. Lllng, Sean. “A political scientist explains how big data is transforming politics.” https://www.vox.com/conversations/2017/3/16/14935336/big-data-politics-donald-trump-2016-elections-polarization. Accessed 5 Oct. 2020.

Source Images

1. Rainie, Lee. “Americans’ complicated feelings about social media in an era of privacy concerns.” How Americans feel about social media and privacy | Pew Research Center. Accessed 2 Dec. 2020.