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Technology has become an important part of human life. In the modern era, technology influences the lifestyles of people as well as their opinions. Although technology has many benefits, it also provides an avenue through which people can circumvent rules and regulations. Brexit offers a clear example of how people can manipulate technology to defeat regulations. During the Brexit referendum campaigns, Facebook played a big role in influencing voters. The outcome of the Brexit vote was a result of concerted efforts to influence voters’ opinions using target ads. The misuse of Facebook to influence the Brexit vote justifies the need to control the use of technology to ensure adherence to rules and regulations in all processes.
During the lead up to the Brexit vote, the Vote Leave Campaign team worked hard to push certain narratives that would tip the vote in their favor. They were able to do this by using the services of Cambridge Analytica, which illicitly collected information about voters from Facebook (Scott 2018). They then used the information to target the voters with ads that appealed to their fears. For instance, through political profiling, Analytica was able to know who to send ads about immigrants. As a result, people in a country like Wales, with minimal issues about immigration developed unnecessary concerns and opted to vote for Brexit.
The reactions by Facebook indicates that the Facebook management was aware of the activities of Cambridge Analytica. The company refused to cooperate when asked to provide answers to the issues surrounding Cambridge Analytica’s activities. Facebook further threatened to sue to stop the publication of the article detailing the malpractices of Cambridge Analytica on Facebook (Cadwalladr 2019). The conduct of Mark Zuckerberg further shows that there was knowledge of what was happening. Zuckerberg refused to appear before the UK parliament to answer questions surrounding Facebook’s role in Brexit. The lack of cooperation from Facebook is an indication of their Knowledge of what Cambridge Analytica was doing.
The statements during the Brexit campaign suggest that the UK may not have been fully in the EU. Slogans such as “Taking Back Control” suggest that some people in the UK did not feel as part of the EU (Cadwalladr 2019). They felt that they were not benefitting from the EU and should therefore exit and be on their own. Such sentiments fueled the campaign to exit the EU. That is despite the efforts of the EU to develop the UK through funding of various projects. Brexit would therefore have a huge impact on the ordinary people in the UK as it affects them directly. Most people only voted based on the ads that were coming through their newsfeed on Facebook. However, they failed to consider what the EU had done for them, which was very evident based on the different projects funded by the EU across UK. Brexit means the reduced EU funding for such projects in the future.
There is no justification for the fear of turkey immigrants flooding Europe. Although the referendum took place when there was increased immigration across Europe, the Vote Leave Campaign took advantage of that to spread unnecessary fear. For instance, Wales had no cases of Turkish immigrants yet the people said they were fed up with immigrants and refugees (Cadwalladr 2019). The Facebook ads created a notion about refugees and immigrants, and rode the narrative to spread fear and push for a vote to exit.
Facebook played a key role in the Brexit vote. Through targeted Facebook ads, the Vote Leave campaign team was able to convince voters to vote for Brexit by taking advantage of their fears. The misuse of Facebook during the Brexit campaign shows the potential risk of misusing technology to defeat free and fair processes.
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