Political Campaigning On Social Networking: Transparency Needed |
Posted: June 19, 2018 |
It was the historical moment, when Mr. Donald Trump took the oath as 45th President of the United States. The US presidential election 2017 was more on the social media network and the results say the story clearly. Social networking plays a vital role in the election, especially after Trump’s win, marketers turned towards social media platforms for election success. In order to defeat other political parties, social media is a perfect weapon. What Facebook did for Trump? Facebook gave a strong boost to Trump’s popularity and success. Well, Facebook data breach scandal is again a debate for some other day. We can’t deny the fact that the social media and networking has a strong influencer. Moreover, this is the reason that transparency is needed, especially when others’ interest is also getting affected. Can Facebook influence the Indian general election 2019? Political parties have started searching scope with the social media networking, they learned that along with advertising on traditional mediums such as television and newspapers; it is also needed. Look closely to the Indian political scenario, it also has the similar wave. In fact, Facebook announced to be a major part of Indian election campaign. The Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi and his brigade are highly active on Twitter and Facebook. India has experienced the major use of this medium in the past 5-7 years of their election campaign. Why social media platforms to be targeted here? What makes social media a proven platform for these parties and politicians is the easiest reach. This is one of the prime factors, and the reason is we all have connectivity with mobile devices and internet. The easy reach, low-cost campaign, large target audience availability and one-to-one contact are making it easier for political parties to use social media. This created a space for mobile app developers to get some app developed by these parties as a dedicated platform to stay connected. The 2014 elections in India had these apps for quick membership of a particular party, it was a huge success ever. Why should social media networking be transparent? The only issue is transparency with these platforms, before the last US presidential elections; there was no concern for transparency and reliability, but the infamous Facebook scandal raised the eyebrows. This is little difficult to digest as how to influence people using a simple Facebook post, but the successful campaign proved it. The ads on these social media network should be authentic and make sense to the viewers. Transparency is must; we should know that what’s truth and what’s not! The news you are seeing on your wall should be reliable and close to the reality. This increases the need for transparency on these popular platforms. Twitter and Facebook with Whatsapp are sharing the major social networking platforms. Transparency helps advertisers and users to feel confidence with that particular platform. Let’s say, a post on a particular party’s mobile app should matches with other social networking, this is the way things work fairly. Wrapping up The officials of Twitter wants to enforce stricter policies for political advertisers and providing clear, transparent disclosure for all ads on Twitter; keeping viewers, readers and marketers interest in mind. Twitter and Facebook both have improvised the transparency practices recently. Twitter official shared that the latest development won’t let an ad or especially political ad published if the user is not authenticated or suspicious. This is a great move, though there is a need to regulate information or such campaigns when such a large audience is influenced with it. It makes Twitter, Facebook and any other social media platform to be more responsible for better results for everyone.
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