Online Campaigning
The eDemocracy Programme has been retained by the Electoral Commission to undertake longtitudinal research into the uses of online forms of communication during elections. This research will investigate the use of digital media during election campaigns in a number of countries, including the UK, US, New Zealand, Pakistan, Iran, France, China and South Africa.
The research will document how the internet is coming into prominence in different regulatory and mediated contexts and explore how candidates in local, mayoral and Parliamentary elections are using the internet to campaign and mobilse support. The over and to discuss regulatory issues surrounding online campaigning.
The regulatory approaches in different countries range from concerns about the ways in which campaigners can hide behind the anonymity afforded by the internet to a desire to track the money spent by candidates on their online electoral strategies. While negative campaigning and 'dirty tricks' preoccupy some authorities, others believe that new technologies could enliven politics and broaden engagement, to the extent that it would be inappropriate to regulate the content of political websites during elections. Electoral spending is an important issue as it becomes increasingly
difficult to track how much money is being spent specifically on
campaigning online as opposed to normally operational websites.
Something that can be exacerbated by the fact that staff and website
development costs often hidden within annual accounts.