Social Media Monitoring in Elections

Social media have become essential infrastructure for public debates and the forming of political opinion. In established democracies, traditional media still play a significant role, even if their content is distributed through social media, while in many new democracies or transition countries, social media have become the dominant platform of political exchange. Facebook’s ‘Free Basics’ initiative for 42 developing countries is creating a social media monopoly in these countries. In some countries, people have come to understand Facebook as ‘the internet’, since most online interaction is mediated through Facebook.