Despite the initial optimism surrounding the Arab Spring, it’s probably fair to say that the overall perception of social media’s role in modern politics is a negative one.  Fake news and misinformation has become pervasive, and the social networks have seemed largely powerless to do much to ensure the information people get is accurate and reliable.

With the presidential election in the US on the horizon, there is understandable concern about the role social media will play in the battle.  A new report provides a number of recommendations on how candidates, the tech platforms and regulators can work together to ensure fair elections are undertaken.

Ethical politics in a digital age

The report was written by academics from Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Fordham and the University of North Carolina, with extensive interviews undertaken with digital political consultants and executives from the major tech platforms.  The aim was to devise some best practice guidelines for ethical online campaigning.

The recommendations included measures in areas such as encouraging voter participation, protecting the integrity of elections and increasing transparency.  In total, there were 12 recommendations to help achieve these goals.

“The rapid development of digital campaign tools has made possible new forms of political messaging and communication, but in ways that threaten to undermine trust in the democratic process,” the authors say. “Practitioners are at the center of this challenge. Their actions drive the ongoing development of digital campaigning as well as the potential to address some of the negative consequences associated with these digital tools.”

The report covers a number of issues that are likely to be central to the upcoming presidential election, such as the use of microtargeting on Facebook, and the regulation of political advertising online.  In the likely event that no regulations are drafted between now and then, the authors urge journalists to adhere to the ethical best practices outlined in the report when covering the election.

Given the increasingly partisan nature of the media industry, this expectation does appear somewhat naive, but we can but hope that all stakeholders eventually get together to halt the slide into the political cesspit we’re currently embarking upon.