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Subtle New Forms of Internet Influence Are Putting Democracy at Risk Worldwide

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Abstract

The free and fair election is fundamental to democracy , but the internet has made possible new, nearly invisible forms of influence that have likely been affecting the outcomes of close elections worldwide for several years now. Left unchecked, these forms of influence will inevitably grow over time, slowly but surely nullifying the democratic process as we know it.

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References

  1. Bond, R. M., Fariss, C. J., Jones, J. J., Kramer, A. D., Marlow, C., Settle, J. E., & Fowler, J. H. (2012). A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and political mobilization. Nature, 489(7415), 295-298.

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  2. Epstein, R., & Robertson, R. E. (2015, August 4). The search engine manipulation effect (SEME) and its possible impact on the outcomes of elections. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 112(33), E4512-E4521. http://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/E4512.full.pdf?with-ds=yes

  3. Trielli, D., Mussenden, S., & Diakopoulos, N. (2015, December 7) Why Google search results favor Democrats. Slate. http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2015/12/why_google_search_results_favor_democrats.single.html

  4. Zittrain, J. (2014, June 1). Facebook could decide an election without anyone ever finding out: The scary future of digital gerrymandering—and how to prevent it. New Republic, 1. https://newrepublic.com/article/117878/information-fiduciary-solution-facebook-digital-gerrymandering

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Correspondence to Robert Epstein .

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© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Epstein, R. (2016). Subtle New Forms of Internet Influence Are Putting Democracy at Risk Worldwide. In: Lee, N. (eds) Google It. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6415-4_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6415-4_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-6413-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-6415-4

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