Social media in the 2020 United States presidential election

Social media was used extensively in the 2020 United States presidential election. Incumbent president Donald Trump had utilized his Twitter account in the past to reach his voters and make announcements, both during and after the 2016 election. The Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden also made use of social media networks to express his views and opinions on important events such as the Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the protests following the killing of George Floyd.
Similar to the previous presidential election, social media helped shape the course of events, with candidates often hunting for 'viral moments'. These could include certain posts, remarks or videos.
In contrast to the previous election, the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal that was exposed after Donald Trump's electoral victory in 2016 led to tighter regulation on the harvesting of personal data for political advertising. Additionally, many platforms have enforced stricter rules on the content that can be posted, and also incorporated fact checking software into their applications. Controversially, the software repeatedly flagged Republican candidate Donald Trump's posts, which led him to accuse social media companies of bias against his campaign.
On 12 August 2020, Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft announced their partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation. The representatives of the giants also met the representatives from the FBI, the Office of the director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security, in an effort to protect the integrity of the November presidential elections. They discussed the disinformation campaign and deceptive behavior practiced over the said Internet and social media platforms.
Background.
In the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump made extensive use of his Twitter account to broadcast his thoughts and opinions during his campaign. The Trump campaign also utilized targeted advertising on the social media site Facebook, by hiring political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to create these personalized ads for users. A subsequent whistle-blowing by an anonymous source, (later revealed to be former Cambridge Analytica employee Christopher Wylie) revealed that personal data of the users had been illegally used, which led to a major data scandal and the liquidation of the company, as well as the eventually testification of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in front of the United States Congress.
Joe Biden, the Democratic Party nominee for 2020, had not made much use of social media in the past, but used portions of his campaign budget to run advertising on certain platforms, most notably Facebook, where he is estimated to have spent up to $1.6 million on advertising leading up to the California Democratic primary.
Democratic primaries.
With over 23 candidates in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, attracting and generating social media attention became a central campaign strategy and a significant focus of campaign fundraising, due to the ongoing rise of social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
With the new centrality of social media to presidential campaigns, staff attention also had to be focused on managing negative viral moments.
In the summer of 2019, the selection process of qualifying for the September 2019 2020 Democratic Party presidential debates and forums, which required candidates to have passes a 2% threshold in 4 national opinion polls, put enormous pressure on the less well-known candidates to generate a "viral moment".
Reddit became an important social media platform in the primaries, with most major candidates having their own 'subreddits', or dedicated community noticeboards. Most of the subreddits were set up by volunteers and supporters, and rapidly grew in size. The largest of these was 'r/SandersForPresident', which accumulated nearly 500,000 followers before Sanders dropped out of the primaries.
During the primaries, candidate Andrew Yang made extensive use of social media, which greatly increased his following. His self-proclaimed voter base the 'Yang Gang' became the subject of many internet memes, particularly on the online message board 4chan.
Donald Trump campaign.
The Trump campaign made considerable use of social media in the 2016 presidential election, and continued to do so in 2020. Trump used the online platform Twitter to broadcast opinions and news on his campaign to his supporters, and his campaign staff created personalized advertisements for Facebook users. The personal data used to create these ads was obtained illegally, something which led to the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. Trump's re-election campaign has been making use of use of multiple social media platforms as well as targeted ads since mid-2019 in an attempt to gain voters early. On 29 June 2020, Reddit deleted Trump's fans' subreddit, r/The_Donald, for violating its policies repeatedly over its lifetime.
Joe Biden campaign.
Similar to his Republican party opponent, Donald Trump, Joe Biden made extensive use of Twitter to broadcast news of his campaign, as well as his opinions on various policies and his proposed changes. Biden used the platform to publicly announce California senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, and also to talk to her publicly.
Facebook.
Facebook has been used by political campaigns to get people to sign up for candidate email lists or to give political donations. Additionally, Facebook has been used considerably more than other social media platforms for targeted advertising, as it is considered by many digital specialists as the best platform for direct response. The platform has a very wide demographic range, with significantly higher proportions of elderly people using the site as compared to its competitors.
In December 2019, the "Wall Street Journal" reported that candidate Senator Bernie Sanders and President Trump were the most active on Facebook, followed by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Twitter.
Both Biden and Trump have taken to Twitter to express their opinions of issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the first impeachment of Donald Trump and the George Floyd protests. Biden does not run his own Twitter account while Trump does. Trump has been criticized for his false and misleading statements, which have repeatedly been flagged by Twitter for violating its policies.
A Pew survey of 3518 twitter users in 2020 shows that the most active 10% generate 92% of the tweets. This highly active group is 69% Democratic and 26% Republican. Furthermore, the high-activity Democrats post twice as many posts per month as high-activity Republicans.
COVID-19.
With the constant advancement and innovation of technology, social media has been integrated into many individuals' day-to-day lives and has become an influential strategy as well as tool for many political campaigns. In recent years, specifically 2020, social media use has increased and, as a result, the use of social media in politics has gained traction due to COVID-19 as the structure of many political campaigns leading up to the 2020 presidential election has turned virtual. Additionally, in the beginning stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, quarantine and stay-at-home orders were enforced across the United States as well as the world just as the U.S. Presidential Election was starting to reach the peak of campaigning. This created an increase in traffic on popular social media sites, including Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat, where there are many political ads and content circulating through social media feeds to promote people to vote for the respective candidates. With this increase of traffic on social media sites, there is fake news and misinformation floating around the internet. According to a research conducted by MIT Sloan, “falsehoods are 70% more likely to be retweeted than the truth.”
During the period leading up to the 2020 U.S. presidential election, users on social media as well as candidates' campaigns created informational content to share to promote voting, regardless of in-person or mail-in voting. Due to COVID-19, the increase of social media usage goes beyond the human craving to stay connected. Social media influencers have expressed political views and opinions on the upcoming election to encourage followers to vote. Additionally, due to the significant presence of Black Lives Matter movement and the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic by the Trump administration on social media, there is an urgency among eligible voters of all ages to cast a vote. Normally, voting in-person has been the traditional way for the U.S. to account for votes and conduct elections from primary to presidential elections for decades. However, recently, the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election will be mainly mail-in voting due to the new social distancing regulations for safety reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic. There will be some areas across the U.S. that will be hosting in-person voting that accommodate with COVID-19 safety regulations, such as social distancing and mandatory masks. Overall, a majority of states across the United States will be mailing ballots to voters.
Additionally, while more and more people are using social media in day-to-day life as a source to keep up with news about the U.S. Presidential Election and various issues, constant political content and content about important issues, such as police brutality, can affect the viewers' mental health negatively. According to research conducted by the Pew Research Center, 55% of adult social media users, regardless of political party association, claim to feel "worn out" by the intensity and amount of political posts and discussions present on their feed. Although the goal of many of these political posts is to inform and spread awareness about certain topics, constant political content can create collective exhaustion. Presidential elections during the COVID-19 era and technological advancements era are all historically important events and the pressure of these events can also aide in the detrimental effects of social media in regards to mental health.