Path to Power: 2024 - Democracy Disrupted?
The algorithmic structures and political economies of dominant commercial platforms favour emotive, attention-grabbing content, leading to an information environment in which hyperpartisan and hyperemotive content is prevalent. This information environment drives hate and exclusion, exascerbating societal division and polarisation.
This reinforces zero-sum, adversarial approaches to governance, making dialogue across already diverging ideological divides more difficult, as well as influencing wider media, political discourse and political agendas.
Social media played a significant role in amplifying political polarization, particularly through the campaigns of populist leaders Malema and Zuma. Malema’s posts frequently attacked the ANC and white monopoly capital, framing political struggles in terms of racial and economic zero-sum battles. Similarly, the ANC used social media to discredit opposition parties, particularly focusing on the Democratic Alliance and its alleged ties to the country’s colonial past.
Popular anti-ANC hashtags that trended included #VoetsekANC and #VoetsekANC2024. The term Voetsek is a pejorative Afrikaans term that loosely translates to go away, attacking the ANC with racially loaded language. Between January 1 and March 31, 2024, these hashtags were used approximately 111,000 times on X, with a peak of 9,186 mentions on February 24, 2024, coinciding with the ANC’s manifesto launch. The coordinated amplification of these hashtags was notably driven by accounts supporting the EFF. Between February 22 and 26, 2024, six EFF-affiliated accounts actively coordinated to amplify these hashtags, each reposting content containing them at least 50 times within four days (African Digital Democracy Observatory, 2024).
Trump’s use of social media, particularly through platforms like X, amplified political polarization by spreading combative rhetoric and disinformation. His messaging often framed political battles as zero-sum, portraying any loss by his side as an existential threat to America, which further entrenched ideological divides. Musk’s deregulation of the platform has meant that bots can easily post on X, prioritising freedom of information at a substantial cost for truth and transparency. Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign shifted away from Biden’s emphasis on unity and recovery, with dynamic, influencer-driven aimed at young people. This move was subsequently criticised for a lack of substance.
Soderbeg & Muhtadi (2023) investigate how resentment shapes political polarization in Indonesia. Resentment, defined as the belief that out-groups unfairly benefit at the expense of in-groups, is examined across four dimensions: religious resentment toward Christians, ethnic resentment toward Chinese-Indonesians, resentment against Java’s dominance, and regional resentment tied to economic disparities. The study finds a strong link between resentful attitudes and support for Prabowo Subianto in the 2019 election, showing that Indonesia’s polarization stems from deep societal divides. While resentment toward Java’s political and demographic dominance has diminished over time, resentment targeting Chinese-Indonesians and non-Muslim minorities remains deeply entrenched; these sentiments are particularly pronounced among younger voters, whose political socialization increasingly occurs through social media. The most acute instance of social media spreading polarization was the circulation of a deepfake video of Widodo appearing to give a speech in Mandarin.
During Pakistan’s 2024 general elections, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party used artificial intelligence to replicate the voice of its incarcerated leader, Imran Khan. By employing AI voice cloning tools, PTI created audio messages based on scripts provided through Khan’s legal representatives, which were then synchronized with archival visuals. The party disclosed its use of AI through watermarks on campaign material, demonstrating transparency.
This innovative approach allowed PTI to maintain Khan’s presence in the campaign, reinforcing its image as technologically advanced and appealing to younger, tech-savvy voters. While ethical concerns arose about AI-generated content, the party’s transparency helped address skepticism. This adaptation showcased how technology can be used to navigate political challenges under state repression. In Pakistan, where press freedom is constrained, PTI’s use of AI demonstrates how innovation can circumvent restrictions, enabling political expression and grassroots mobilization.
The 2024 election in Mexico was a clear example of online polarization and the rapid spread of hate speech through digital communication platforms. Through both traditional and social media discourse, the Mexican electorate was polarized into two dominant camps around their support for López Obrador’s tenure, with little to no opportunity for civil discourse on platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Online commentators critical of López Obrador attacked supporters of MORENA as ignorant, stupid, and lazy; in return, those supportive of López Obrador labeled his critics as naive supporters of an elite-favoring system that will not benefit them.
Gender-based online hate speech was widespread throughout the campaign, affecting discussions at both the national and local levels. The suitability of both leading candidates for the presidency was questioned due to their gender. At several points, criticism directed at the candidates was perceived as gender-driven: Sheinbaum was accused of being a puppet of López Obrador, while the mayoral candidate for Mexico City faced criticism linked to alleged sexual relations with a former political ally.
According to the electoral authority, 363 people were sanctioned for cases of gender violence (INE 2024). Although further research is needed to determine the causal effect of gender-based online hate speech on offline gender violence, we cannot discard an inflammable effect coming from online environments. For instance, in a local election, a female candidate was a victim of constant hate speech on Facebook. After filing a complaint for gender-based political violence, the electoral authority decided to nullify the election.
Georgian Dream oversaw systematic use of social media for computational propaganda, using official accounts as well as networks of unofficial supporters to spread the global war party conspiracy, claiming the European Union is provoking the Russian military and seeking to draw Georgia into the Ukraine conflict. They have also used digital media to spread conspiratorial claims of European liberal contagion, claiming support for progressive causes is the result of foreign influence, with populist rhetorical attacks on minority groups justified as the protection of Georgian values. Using these narratives, Georgian Dream sought to de-legitimize their political opponents as agents of the global war party and liberal contagion, casting them as enemies of the Georgian people.
The opposition, in turn, used their online presence to attack Georgian Dream’s politics as an alignment with Moscow, claiming the party to be pro-Russian agents of the Kremlin betraying the pro-European will of the Georgian people. The structures of social media, which favor promoting outrage and inflammatory content, saw these competing narratives dominate Georgian online discourse throughout the election. In this way, Georgian social media was highly polarised during the election between the two sides, which was so adversarial that neither side now recognizes the legitimacy of their opposition.
The problem of disinformation and misinformation has been acute, particularly enabled by social media platforms. The growth of social media usage for political campaigning is also a crucial factor driving this phenomenon. While the
incumbent BJP party is often seen as the primary actor for political polarization and mis- and disinformation, other national political parties such as the INC also promote polarizing content. The problem of misinformation and disinformation is also exacerbated by the closed nature of some private messaging platforms, where fact-checking and mitigation techniques become difficult to implement. Digital platforms are also regularly used to glorify vigilante violence, especially against minority groups.
The rise of GB News and far-right influencers in the UK exemplifies how algorithmic structures and platform economies reward emotive, hyperpartisan content, driving societal division, often intertwined with traditional media. GB News, positioning itself as a counterweight to the BBC, has capitalized on the incentive structures of YouTube and Facebook by amplifying polarizing issues and segments on topics like asylum seekers or debates over trans rights often use sensationalist framing, designed to provoke strong reactions and steer the 24-hour media cycle.
Far-right influencers like Laurence Fox and Katie Hopkins further illustrate this dynamic; their content pushes anti-immigration rhetoric or critiques of multiculturalism designed to exploit existing grievances and fears, normalize adversarial and exclusionary views, and embed them in broader public discourse.
Due to the lack of consistent active media presence in Cabo Delgado, coupled with allegations of serious human rights violations from multiple belligerents, misinformation such as exaggerated claims about the ethnic or religious motivations of the insurgency were particularly sensitive and incendiary.
False claims about the scale of the violence, spread wildly by panicked communities, were swiftly condemned by the government. In terms of the political rhetoric surrounding the election, Mondlane’s supporters thrived on social media by lambasting both FRELIMO and RENAMO as FRENAMO (presenting them as two sides of the same coin to antagonize supporters of either) and appropriating the popular revolutionary songs and slogans of the independence movement.