Our Mind, Our Business? - Protecting Democratic Will-Formation in the EU in the Digital Age
Elections in the 21st century are increasingly affected by the rise of technology and social media. Democratic systems in the European Union rest on the idea of direct, free, equal, and secret elections, combined with an unrestricted free market of ideas and free flow of information. Facilitated access to information through technological developments and social media can promote citizens’ (equal) participation in democratic processes. At the same time, voters can, through the manipulation and individual targeting of information and in the absence of proper campaign regulations in the online sphere, be influenced in a much more unregulated, and possibly illegitimate, manner than was possible before, in particular where their free will-formation process is concerned. In her project, Thu Nguyen aims to investigate how electoral laws and regulations can protect political will-formation in the EU against technological impediments without at the same time impinging on democratic values such as the right to free speech.
