Further, the content on social media platforms – particularly on Twitter – is disproportionately left-leaning. Indeed, Trump's broadest support came from older white voters without a college education in rural areas, who are among the least likely people to use social media actively (Hargittai 2015). In the 2016 presidential election, Trump notably received fewer votes from demographic groups with higher propensity to use social media or the internet (Boxell et al. An alternative view holds that social media platforms are biased against conservative voices (e.g. US Federal Election Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, for example, has argued that social media “has no idea how seriously it is hurting democracy” (NPR 2020). Many see these statements as evidence of social media's broader influence on political polarisation and the recent re-emergence of right-wing populist politicians in many countries. In a recent interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes, Trump himself declared: “I think I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have social media.” And Facebook for fundraising” (Wired 2016). As Brad Parscale, Trump's digital media director in 2016, put it: “Facebook and Twitter were the reason we won this thing. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have argued that these factors were instrumental in the 2016 election outcome, as has Barack Obama (The New Yorker 2016). Can social media affect election outcomes? A popular narrative holds that, in 2016, Twitter played a decisive role in both the presidential election in the US and the UK’s Brexit referendum.
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