ISSN 0868-4871
En Ru
ISSN 0868-4871
The Implementation Of The Search Engine Manipulation Effect In The Election Campaign 2021 In Russia

The Implementation Of The Search Engine Manipulation Effect In The Election Campaign 2021 In Russia

Abstract

The article presents the results of an applied political research devoted to the implementation of the manipulative effect of search engines (SEME) during the election campaign in 2021 in Russia. SEME is a technology for influencing a wide audience, aimed at transforming behavioral effects and shaping public opinion through changes in the issuance of digital search engines. The order of issue, as well as the tone of the results, can significantly influence the attitude of undecided users and their subsequent electoral choice. According to the results of the study, a number of manipulations in the nature of search results were recorded, associated with an increase in negative coverage of the electoral process, election results and the state of the party system, achieved through the active dissemination of materials from foreign information resources.

References

Aneesh, A. Virtual Migration: The Programming of Globalization. Durham: Duke University Press. 2006.
Castells, M. “Network Theory of Power, ”International Journal of Communication, Vol. 5, 2011, pp. 773–787.
Castells, M. Communication Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Castells, M. Informatsionnaia epokha: ekonomika, obshchestvo i kul’tura, transl. Moscow: The Higher School of Economics Publishing House, 2000.
Castells, M. Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age. Cambridge; Malden: Polity, 2015.
Crain, M., and Nadler, A. “Political Manipulation and Internet Advertising Infrastructure, ”Journal of Information Policy, Vol. 9, 2019, pp. 370–410.
Dalton, R. J. Citizen Politics: Public Opinion and Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies. New York: Chatham House Publishers, 2002.
Danlivi, P. “Politicheskoe povedenie: institutsional’nyi i empiricheskii podkhody, ”Politicheskaia nauka: novye napravleniia, eds. R. Goodin, and H.-D. Klingemann. Moscow: Veche, 1999, pp. 281–296.
Epstein, R. “Manipulating Minds: The Power of Search Engines to Influence Votes and Opinions,” Digital Dominance: The Power of Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple, eds. M. Moore, and D. Tambini. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, pp. 294–319.
Epstein, R., and Robertson, R. E. “The Search Engine Manipulation Effect (SEME) and Its Possible Impact on the Outcomes of Elections, ”Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 112, No. 33, 2015, pp. E4512–E4521.
Epstein, R., Robertson, R. E., Lazer, D., and Wilson, C. “Suppressing the Search Engine Manipulation Effect (SEME),” Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2017, pp. 1–22.
Kwet, M. “Digital Colonialism: US Empire and the New Imperialism in the Global South, ”Race & Class, Vol. 40, No. 4, 2019, pp. 3–26.
Matz, S. C., Kosinski, M., Nave, G., and Stillwell, D. J. “Psychological Targeting as an Effective Approach to Digital Mass Persuasion, ”Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 114, No. 48, 2017, pp. 12714–12719.
Pushkareva, G. V. “Kognitivnye mekhanizmy konstruirovaniia politicheskoi real’nosti, ”Polis. Politicheskie issledovaniia, No. 1, 2015, pp. 55–70.
Ravel, A. M., Woolley, S. C., and Sridharan, H. Principles and Policies to Counter Deceptive Digital Politics. Palo Alto: Institute for the Future, 2019.
Shestopal, E. B. (ed.) Politicheskaia psikhologiia: Khrestomatiia. Moscow: Aspekt Press, 2018.
Volodenkov, S. V. “Informatsionnoe vmeshatel’stvo kak fenomen deiatel’nosti sub”ektov sovremennoi mezhdunarodnoi politiki,” Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriia 4: Istoriia. Regionovedenie. Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia, Vol. 25, No. 3, 2020, pp. 148–160.
PDF, ru

Keywords: election campaign; search engines; digital environment; manipulative technologies; political parties; party system; political technologies; information intervention

Available in the on-line version with: 15.08.2022

To cite this article
Number 4, 2022