Dr. Balázs Bodó, Prof. Natali Helberger and Prof. Claes de Vreese are the editors of the special issue of Internet Policy Review about Political Microtargeting.

Political micro-targeting (PMT) has become a popular topic both in academia and in the public discussions after the surprise results of the 2016 US presidential election, the UK vote on leaving the European Union, and a number of general elections in Europe in 2017. Yet, we still know little about whether PMT is a tool with such destructive potential that it requires close societal control, or if it’s “just” a new phenomenon with currently unknown capacities, but which can ultimately be incorporated into our political processes.

The issue includes studies from Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands and the US on how big data and technology change campaigns and our democracies.