The 2021 German Federal Election on Social Media: Analysing Electoral Risks Created by Twitter and Facebook

Johanne Kübler; M.T. Sekwenz; Felicitas Rachinger; Anna König; Rita Gsenger; Eliska Pirkova; Matthias C. Kettemann; Ben Wagner; Michael Krennerich; Carolina Ferro

The 2021 German Federal Election on Social Media: Analysing Electoral Risks Created by Twitter and Facebook

Johanne Kübler, M.T. Sekwenz, Felicitas Rachinger, Anna König, Rita Gsenger, Eliska Pirkova, Matthias C. Kettemann, Ben Wagner, Michael Krennerich, Carolina Ferro

Organisation & Governance

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volume › Conference contribution › Scientific › peer-review

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Abstract

Safeguarding democratic elections is hard. Social media plays a vital role in the discourse around elections and during electoral campaigns. The following article provides an analysis of the ‘systemic electoral risks’ created by Twitter and Facebook and the mitigation strategies employed by the platforms. It is based on the 2020 proposal by the European Commission for the new Digital Services Act (DSA) in the context of the 2021 German federal elections. This article focuses on Twitter and Facebook and their roles during the German federal elections that took place on 26 September 2021. We analysed three systemic electoral risk categories: 1) the dissemination of illegal content, 2) negative effects on electoral rights, and 3) the influence of disinformation and developed systematic categories for this purpose. In conclusion, we discuss how to respond to these challenges as well as avenues for future research.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 56th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2023
Pages	4036-4045
Number of pages	10
Publication status	Published - Jan 2023
Event	56th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2023 - Hawaii , Virtual, Online, United States Duration: 3 Jan 2023 → 6 Jan 2023

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Number	56.

Conference

Conference	56th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2023
Country/Territory	United States
City	Virtual, Online
Period	3/01/23 → 6/01/23

Keywords

disinformation
elections
Germany
illegal content
socio-technical systems
platform governance

Access to Document

0394Final published version, 419 KB

https://hdl.handle.net/10125/103124

Best Paper Award – 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Kübler, Johanne (Recipient), Sekwenz, M.T. (Recipient), Rachinger, Felicitas (Recipient), König, Anna (Recipient), Gsenger, Rita (Recipient), Pirkova, Eliska (Recipient), Wagner, B. (Recipient), Kettemann, Matthias C. (Recipient), Krennerich, Michael (Recipient) & Ferro, Carolina (Recipient), 6 Jan 2023
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)

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Kübler, J., Sekwenz, M. T., Rachinger, F., König, A., Gsenger, R., Pirkova, E., Kettemann, M. C., Wagner, B., Krennerich, M., & Ferro, C. (2023). The 2021 German Federal Election on Social Media: Analysing Electoral Risks Created by Twitter and Facebook. In Proceedings of the 56th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2023 (pp. 4036-4045). (Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences; No. 56.). https://hdl.handle.net/10125/103124

Kübler, Johanne ; Sekwenz, M.T. ; Rachinger, Felicitas et al. / The 2021 German Federal Election on Social Media: Analysing Electoral Risks Created by Twitter and Facebook. Proceedings of the 56th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2023. 2023. pp. 4036-4045 (Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences; 56.).

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abstract = "Safeguarding democratic elections is hard. Social media plays a vital role in the discourse around elections and during electoral campaigns. The following article provides an analysis of the {\textquoteleft}systemic electoral risks{\textquoteright} created by Twitter and Facebook and the mitigation strategies employed by the platforms. It is based on the 2020 proposal by the European Commission for the new Digital Services Act (DSA) in the context of the 2021 German federal elections. This article focuses on Twitter and Facebook and their roles during the German federal elections that took place on 26 September 2021. We analysed three systemic electoral risk categories: 1) the dissemination of illegal content, 2) negative effects on electoral rights, and 3) the influence of disinformation and developed systematic categories for this purpose. In conclusion, we discuss how to respond to these challenges as well as avenues for future research.",

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Kübler, J, Sekwenz, MT, Rachinger, F, König, A, Gsenger, R, Pirkova, E, Kettemann, MC, Wagner, B, Krennerich, M & Ferro, C 2023, The 2021 German Federal Election on Social Media: Analysing Electoral Risks Created by Twitter and Facebook. in Proceedings of the 56th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2023. Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, no. 56., pp. 4036-4045, 56th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2023, Virtual, Online, United States, 3/01/23. <https://hdl.handle.net/10125/103124>

The 2021 German Federal Election on Social Media: Analysing Electoral Risks Created by Twitter and Facebook. / Kübler, Johanne; Sekwenz, M.T.; Rachinger, Felicitas et al.
Proceedings of the 56th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2023. 2023. p. 4036-4045 (Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences; No. 56.).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volume › Conference contribution › Scientific › peer-review

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AU - Gsenger, Rita

AU - Pirkova, Eliska

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AU - Krennerich, Michael

AU - Ferro, Carolina

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AB - Safeguarding democratic elections is hard. Social media plays a vital role in the discourse around elections and during electoral campaigns. The following article provides an analysis of the ‘systemic electoral risks’ created by Twitter and Facebook and the mitigation strategies employed by the platforms. It is based on the 2020 proposal by the European Commission for the new Digital Services Act (DSA) in the context of the 2021 German federal elections. This article focuses on Twitter and Facebook and their roles during the German federal elections that took place on 26 September 2021. We analysed three systemic electoral risk categories: 1) the dissemination of illegal content, 2) negative effects on electoral rights, and 3) the influence of disinformation and developed systematic categories for this purpose. In conclusion, we discuss how to respond to these challenges as well as avenues for future research.

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KW - platform governance

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Kübler J, Sekwenz MT, Rachinger F, König A, Gsenger R, Pirkova E et al. The 2021 German Federal Election on Social Media: Analysing Electoral Risks Created by Twitter and Facebook. In Proceedings of the 56th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2023. 2023. p. 4036-4045. (Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences; 56.).

The 2021 German Federal Election on Social Media: Analysing Electoral Risks Created by Twitter and Facebook

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Keywords

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Prizes

Best Paper Award – 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

Cite this