Social media have become an essential infrastructure for public debates and the forming of political opinion. In established democracies, traditional media still play a significant role, even if their content is distributed through social media, while in many new democracies or transition countries, social media have become the dominant platform of political exchange. In this discussion paper, we lay out the relevance of social media for elections, and how election observers can begin to integrate this area into their scrutiny of electoral processes.
Download the Discussion Paper “Social Media Monitoring in Elections” below.