The Impact Of Political Data Analytics

In 2008 internet campaigning became a serious tool as demonstrated by Barack Obama’s use of data about voters to produce a highly targeted campaign on social media and other internet platforms. In addition was the first use of big data to provide predictive modelling about voter behavior. Big data tools were used to gather and process the massive amount of information that was available in order to provide data modelling and simulations to predict voter behavior. Using the socially media connected platform my.barackobama.com they enabled over 2 million voters to link their FaceBook profile and share information about the campaign. This heralded the advent of the use of data science in politics and it has been used in innovative, and some say, intrusive ways ever since as the Cambridge Analytica scandal showed. Political data analytics is changing the face of voter advertising and outreach.