Social media in the 2020 United States presidential election

Social media is expected to be used extensively in the 2020 United States presidential election. Incumbent president Donald Trump has utilized his Twitter account in the past to reach his voters and make announcements, both during and after the 2016 election. The presumptive Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden has also been making use of social media networks to express his views and opinions on important events at the time such as the Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the protests following the killing of George Floyd.


2020 U.S. presidential election
Republican Party
Democratic Party
Third parties
Related races
2020

Candidates have utilized platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to connect with their voter base, often making use of fact-checking, news articles and political advertising to discredit their opponents and gain support.[1][2]

Similar to the previous election, social media has helped shape the course of events, with candidates often hunting for 'viral moments'. These can include certain posts, remarks or videos.[3]

In contrast to the previous election, the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal that was exposed after Donald Trump's electoral victory in 2016 has led to tighter regulation on the harvesting of personal data for political advertising. Additionally, many platforms have enforced stricter rules on the content that can be posted, and also incorporated fact checking software into their applications. Controversially, the software has repeatedly flagged Republican candidate Donald Trump's posts, which has led him to accuse social media companies of bias against his campaign.[4]

Background

In the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump made extensive use of his Twitter account to broadcast his thoughts and opinions during his campaign.[5] The Trump campaign also utilized targeted advertising on the social media site Facebook, by hiring political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to create these personalized ads for users.[6] A subsequent whistleblowing by an anonymous source, (later revealed to be former Cambridge Analytica employee Christopher Wylie) revealed that personal data of the users had been illegally used, which led to a major data scandal and the liquidation of he company, as well as the eventually testification of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in front of the United States Congress.[7][8]

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for 2020, has not made much use of social media in the past, but has used portions of his campaign budget to run advertising on certain platforms, most notably Facebook, where he is estimated to have spent up to $1.6 million on advertising leading up to the California Democratic primary.[9]

Democratic primaries

With over 23 candidates in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, attracting and generating social media attention became a central campaign strategy.[10]

In 2020 social media became a significant focus of campaign fundraising, due to the ongoing rise of social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.[11][12]

With the new centrality of social media to presidential campaigns, staff attention also had to be focused on managing negative viral moments.[13]

In the summer of 2019, the selection process of qualifying for the September 2019 2020 Democratic Party presidential debates and forums, which required candidates to have passes a 2% threshold in 4 national opinion polls, put enormous pressure on the less well-known candidates to generate a "viral moment".[14]

Reddit became an important social media platform in the primaries, with most major candidates having their own 'subreddits', or dedicated community noticeboards. Most of the subreddits were set up by volunteers and supporters, and rapidly grew in size.[15][16][17] The largest of these was 'r/SandersForPresident', which accumulated nearly 500,000 followers before Sanders dropped out of the primaries.[18][16]

During the primaries, candidate Andrew Yang made extensive use of social media, which greatly increased his following. His self-proclaimed voter base the 'Yang Gang' became the subject of many internet memes, particularly on the online message board 4chan.[19]

Donald Trump campaign

The Trump campaign made considerable use of social media in the 2016 presidential election. Donald Trump used the online platform Twitter to broadcast opinions and news on his campaign to his supporters, and his campaign staff created personalized advertisements for Facebook users. The personal data used to create these ads was obtained illegally, something which led to the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. Trump's re-election campaign has been making use of use of multiple social media platforms as well as targeted ads since mid-2019 in an attempt to gain voters early.[20] On 29 June 2020, Reddit deleted Trump's fans' subreddit, r/The_Donald, for violating its policies repeatedly over its lifetime.[21]

2020 Tulsa rally

In June 2020, Donald Trump held a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Due to him being generally disliked by Gen Z, an online effort (mainly on the social media apps, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter) was made to purchase multiple tickets to the rally, but not attend.[22][23] Said attempt was largely successful, with the rally selling over 1 million tickets, but only a turnout of just above 6,000 people.[24]

Joe Biden campaign

Similar to his Republican party opponent, Donald Trump Joe Biden has made extensive use of Twitter to broadcast news of his campaign, as well as his opinions on various policies and his proposed changes. Biden used the platform to publicly announce California senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, and also to talk to her publicly.[25][26]

Facebook

Facebook has been used by political campaigns to get people to sign up for candidate email lists or to give political donations. Additionally, Facebook has been used considerably more than other social media platforms for targeted advertising, as it is considered by many digital specialists as the best platform for direct response. The platform has a very wide demographic range, with significantly higher proportions of elderly people using the site as compared to its competitors.[27][28][29]

In December 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported that candidate Senator Bernie Sanders and President Trump were the most active on Facebook, followed by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.[30]

Twitter

Both presumptive nominees, Joe Biden and Donald Trump of the Democratic Party and Republican Party respectively, have taken to Twitter to express their opinions of issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the impeachment of Donald Trump and the George Floyd protests.[31][5] Trump has been criticized for his false and misleading statements, which have repeatedly been flagged by Twitter for violating its policies.[32][33]

See also

References
  1. "Joe Biden For President 2020: Official Campaign Website". Joe Biden for President. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
  2. "Donald J. Trump for President". www.donaldjtrump.com. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
  3. Wang, Amy B (24 June 2019). "Candidates hunt desperately for viral moments". Washington Post. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  4. Romm, Tony (2019-07-11), "Trump accuses social media companies of 'terrible bias' at White House summit decried by critics", Washington Post, retrieved 2020-07-10
  5. Twitter https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump. Retrieved 2020-06-30. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. Wong, Julia Carrie (2020-01-29). "One year inside Trump's monumental Facebook campaign". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  7. Rosenberg, Matthew; Confessore, Nicholas; Cadwalladr, Carole (2018-03-17). "How Trump Consultants Exploited the Facebook Data of Millions". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  8. Watson, Chloe (2018-04-11). "The key moments from Mark Zuckerberg's testimony to Congress". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  9. Goldmacher, Shane (2020-06-08). "Biden Pours Millions Into Facebook Ads, Blowing Past Trump's Record". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-07-11.
  10. Schneider, Elana (17 February 2019). "2020 hopefuls hunt for viral moments". Politico. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  11. Dezenski, Lauren (1 August 2019). "How to make money with merch from a viral debate moment". CNN. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  12. Lapowsky, Ian (17 April 2019). "In the 2020 Race, What Is the Value of Social Media Stardom?". Wired. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  13. Rutenberg, Jim (19 May 2019). "Kissing Babies, Loving Scrapple, Fighting Viral Hoaxes: '20 Race's New Routine". New York Times. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  14. Astor, Maggie (1 August 2019). "Only 8 Candidates Have Qualified for the Next Democratic Debate". New York Times. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  15. "r/ElizabethWarren". reddit. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  16. "r/SandersForPresident". reddit. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  17. "r/JoeBiden". reddit. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  18. Ember, Sydney (2020-04-08). "Bernie Sanders Drops Out of 2020 Democratic Race for President". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  19. Brandom, Russell (2019-03-09). "Presidential candidate Andrew Yang has a meme problem". The Verge. Retrieved 2020-07-07.
  20. Wong, Julia Carrie (2020-01-29). "One year inside Trump's monumental Facebook campaign". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  21. Bedingfield, Will (2020-07-02). "Reddit has banned r/The_Donald. Who it bans next matters more". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  22. "Trump Approval Index History - Rasmussen Reports®". www.rasmussenreports.com. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  23. Lorenz, Taylor; Browning, Kellen; Frenkel, Sheera (2020-06-21). "TikTok Teens and K-Pop Stans Say They Sank Trump Rally". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  24. Solender, Andrew. "Turnout At Trump's Tulsa Rally Was Just Under 6,200–A Fraction Of The Venue's 19,200 Capacity". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  25. "Joe Biden annouces Kamala Harris as his running mate". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-08-13.
  26. "Kamala Harris responding to Joe Biden's tweet". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-08-13.
  27. "• Facebook by the Numbers (2020): Stats, Demographics & Fun Facts". 2020-01-06. Retrieved 2020-07-11.
  28. "• Twitter by the Numbers (2020): Stats, Demographics & Fun Facts". 2020-01-05. Retrieved 2020-07-11.
  29. "• Instagram by the Numbers (2020): Stats, Demographics & Fun Facts". 2020-01-26. Retrieved 2020-07-11.
  30. Glazer, Emily (December 2019). "Presidential Candidates Take to Social Media". The Wall Street Journal.
  31. Twitter https://twitter.com/joebiden. Retrieved 2020-06-30. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  32. Yglesias, Matthew (2020-05-29). "Twitter flags Trump for "glorifying violence" in "looting starts, shooting starts" tweet". Vox. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  33. Feiner, Lauren (2020-06-23). "Twitter flagged another Trump tweet for violating its policies". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-06-30.

Further reading
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