Digital technology is allowing more parties, campaigners, and voters than ever to participate in political debate. While we view this as a positive step for democracy, we must recognise that it has created a more complex regulatory environment for the Electoral Commission. The framework for regulating political campaign spending during elections and referendums has not kept pace with the challenges presented by the growth of social media, targeted advertising using big data, and viral online ...

Digital technology is allowing more parties, campaigners, and voters than ever to participate in political debate. While we view this as a positive step for democracy, we must recognise that it has created a more complex regulatory environment for the Electoral Commission. The framework for regulating political campaign spending during elections and referendums has not kept pace with the challenges presented by the growth of social media, targeted advertising using big data, and viral online marketing campaigns. We are concerned by the fact a significant amount of transparency for digital campaigning comes from voluntary initiatives by social Type: conclusion | Number: 21 | Paragraph: 84 | Response status: not_addressed Government response: Cooperation between national regulatory authorities is essential to ensuring consistency, clarity and protection for UK users as well as industry in the digital space. The Government agrees that it is important that the Electoral Commission can co