Ruimte voor regulering van politieke microtargeting

Election campaigns are digitalizing. 'Microtargeting' enables political parties to use data analysis to send tailored messages to individual citizens: the elderly receive information about pensions, adolescents about student loans. Even the tone of voice can be adjusted to match the recipient’s personality traits. Ever since the Cambridge Analytica scandal (2016), concerns have been raised about transparency, public deliberation, and voter autonomy. This research aims to expand knowledge on microtargeting, particularly its legal context, and to provide guidelines for crafting constitutionally valid, effective, and contextually appropriate regulations. To this end, the subject is approached from three angles. After a problem analysis, microtargeting is examined within the Netherlands’ ‘non-interventionist’ tradition of party regulation. Next, a fundamental rights-based perspective is used to define the legislative boundaries. Lastly, international approaches (U.S., France, Germany) offer inspiration.

Key findings suggest that while concerns in the Dutch context are relatively low, AI could amplify risks to democracy, which could be mitigated by law. The legislator need not hesitate: political parties have already been gradually incorporated into a substantial legal framework as its stands. Fundamental rights set limits on what legislation can entail – measures should be generally and content-neutrally formulated – but they leave room for state intervention, in particular regarding potential foreign influence. Regulation should at the minimum enhance transparency in digital campaigning and the data used. Finally, effective measures should be aimed not only at parties but also on platforms like Facebook, Google, and Twitter, as they play equally significant roles.

Dissertation: https://hdl.handle.net/11370/0d97eae2-411b-4762-8c47-6a927325869a