Tech and Elections Over the Last 20 Years
Discover more from Anchor Change with Katie Harbath
Tech and Elections Over the Last 20 Years
New database chronicles tech company announcements from 2003 to the present about their work around elections
I’m a tech and elections nerd. Going back to my first campaign in 2004 where I first learned how to code an email, build a website, and edit a video I’ve been a part of and an avid follower of how online technology is used in elections.
Along the way, I’ve created various collections of articles, images, and links to help me keep track of this history. One of the first pieces of analysis I did was about the growing trend toward mobile in the final months of the 2010 campaign. After the 2012 cycle, I put together a PDF of every article I could find talking about how the campaigns and others were using digital tools. I have boards on Pinterest going back to 2004 with all sorts of screenshots. (Scroll down to find links to the boards for each year.) Last year I made an excel with every book I could think of that was written about this space as well as other key articles, videos, and podcasts.
All of this has generally been ad hoc and pulled together because someone has asked me for recommendations on things to read or for a historical account of how things happened in the past. A lot of it was me figuring that someday I would want an easy way to go back and look at everything that happened.
This is why I’m so excited to share a new database today that I’ve done in conjunction with my work at the Bipartisan Policy Center and the Integrity Institute. Thanks to the help of John Hill - a researcher I found through Upwork - Collier Fernekes and Lia Joseph at the Bipartisan Policy Center and the members of the Integrity Institute we’ve created a collection of public links we could find to tech company announcements about their work on elections going back to 2003. It’s updated as of a few days ago with a little over 400 links covering nearly 50 companies.
Right now it’s pretty simple as you can filter by published date (If there is one), date added to the database, company/platform, type of announcement, and country. However, down the road we want to add a lot more such as keywords, executives quoted, public statements that aren’t formal press releases or blog posts, etc.
Moreover, I know there is a lot from before 2016 and especially the early 2000s that I need to find. Some of the earlier versions of blogs that Twitter and Facebook kept aren’t easily found. Some you can get through Google search. Others through archive.org, but it’s going to take me a bit longer.
Even though it’s not perfect, the reason I wanted to launch this now is reporters are starting to write stories about what the platforms are doing for the 2022 midterms and how that compares to previous efforts. I thought that this might be helpful as people start to ask these questions.
The next step for me in addition to adding additional data to the database is to do an analysis of this data to identify some key trends over the years. I want to be able to better quantify just how much the platforms have done, but also how their strategies are changing. My hope is to get that out the door sometime in late September.
Part of the reason I wanted to release this database as well is that I’m obviously incredibly biased when it comes to this work. I’ve been an active participant. I think the companies - especially Facebook/Meta - don’t get enough credit for all that they have done. I am also worried about potential reductions in resources and support - especially as we go into 2024. By going through all this I’m hoping I can maybe gain some clarity, perspective, and thoughts about what companies, governments, and campaigns should be doing in this space. I also hope this will help others who are studying this work.
Please let me know if you have any issues with the dashboard, things I missed, or things you would like to see. If you know of anyone who worked at the platforms in the early 2000s and might know of stuff I missed I would love an introduction. And keep reading this newsletter for future work looking back on this rich and complicated history.
PS: I would be remiss not to mention two resources that started much earlier than myself in cataloging this work. The first is Eric Applemann with Democracy in Action. He started cataloging campaigns starting in the 90s and that is where I found some of the older screenshots of campaign websites. The other is Tech President. Micah Sifry and Andrew Rasiej were amongst the very first to organize and track this topic. The site got transferred a few years ago over to new owners where they were supposed to keep an archive (at least according to their about section). I have an inquiry into them of where that is and I’ll update this once I hear.
Pinterest Boards
2005: No pins yet for this year.
2011: No pin yet for this year.
What I’m Reading
Lawfare: Were Facebook and Twitter Consistent in Labeling Misleading Posts During the 2020 Election?
Platformer: Three wild stories from Facebook's counter-espionage team
Axios: FEC drafts OK for Google campaign-email plan (Third story at link)
FEC Advisory Opinion: https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/aos/2022-14/202214.pdf
Zoning Out: Content moderation at TikTok: b*obs, or no b*obs?
France 24: Iranians find their voices on Clubhouse ahead of poll
Washington Post: Misleading Kansas abortion texts linked to Republican-aligned firm
Bloomberg: The Indian Government's Fight Against 'Fake News' Targets Political Dissent
The Kyiv Independent: Ukraine appeals to Meta to stop blocking Ukrainians posting about Russian war crimes
Protocol: News you can trust? All the news that’s fit to TikTok
New York Times: Fed Up With Democratic Emails? You’re Not the Only One.
Erick Erickson: GOP Consultants: Stop Blaming Others For the Problems You Created
NPR: Republicans have long feuded with the mainstream media. Now many are shutting them out
Roll Call: To Cameo or not to Cameo? That’s the question for political campaigns
Politico: Fight over online political ads heats up ahead of midterms
Think Tanks/Academia/Government
NYU Ad Observatory: Explore Facebook and Instagram Political Ads
Integrity Institute: How User Content Creation Changes the Impact of Social Media Enforcement
Nature: Social capital I: measurement and associations with economic mobility
Companies
Meta Oversight Board: Oversight Board publishes transparency report for first quarter of 2022
Clubhouse: Announcing Houses
Job Openings
Freedom House: Policy and Advocacy Officer or Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer, Technology and Democracy
There are **many** open positions at Freedom House. Check them out here: https://freedomhouse.org/about-us/careers
National Endowment for Democracy: Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program
Democracy Works: Openings for software engineer and director of HR
Atlantic Council DFR Lab: Variety of positions open. More info at link.
Atlantic Council: #DigitalSherlocks Scholarships
Meta Oversight Board: Variety of positions open. More info at link.
National Democratic Institute (NDI): Variety of positions open. More info at link.
Protect Democracy: Technology Policy Advocate
Calendar
Topics to keep an eye on that have a general timeframe of the first half of the year:
Facebook 2020 election research
Oversight Board opinion on cross-check
Senate & House hearings, markups, and potential votes
August: Angola elections
August 2 - Arizona and Missouri Primaries (AZ Kelly defending Senate seat, MO open Senate race)
August 9 - Wisconsin Primary (Ron Johnson defending Senate seat)
August 9 - Kenya elections
September 6 - 8: Code 2022 - Vox/Recode Silicon Valley Conference
September 11 - Sweden elections
September 13 - New Hampshire Primary (Hassan defending Senate seat)
September 13 - 27: UN General Assembly
Sept 20 - High level general debate begins
September 21-23: Atlantic Festival
September 27 - 28: Trust Con
September 28 - 30: Athens Democracy Forum
September 29 - 30: Trust and Safety Research Conference
October: Twitter/Musk Trial (Dates not set yet)
October 2 and 30: Brazil
October 15 - 22: SXSW Sydney
October 17: Twitter/Musk Trial Begins
November 8: United States Midterms
March 10 - 19: SXSW
March 20 - 24, 2023: Mozilla Fest
Events to keep an eye on but nothing scheduled: