Page 132 - Towards_a_New_Malaysia_The_2018_Election_and_Its_6146371_(z-lib.org)

Big Data Campaigning 117

Invoke did not produce discriminatory, sexualized, or fake content, and the
second centred around the issue of privacy:
e biggest issue with Cambridge Analytica is that it illegally data-mined.
at’s not what we do here [at Invoke]. What we do here are surveys and from
there we do regressions and other data analysis to pro le potential voters. en
we pick one [group] from a constituency, which we think are fence-sitters, and
then we submit them to Facebook [for microtargeting]. It’s very di erent and
we don’t actually know who is who (Tan 2018).
is may be true, but it’s the blending of a number of functions that makes
Invoke’s business model a rather uncomfortable addition to the political
campaign realm. In justifying Invoke’s business model, Ra zi said Invoke
would be supported because of ‘the lack of independent news and lack of
access that politicians like me have or do not have on local media, so people
turn to Facebook, and I have to read the news.… So much of what we do is
a re ection of the frustration arising from the stranglehold Barisan Nasional
has on the free ow of information’ (Tan 2018). As stated earlier, this is largely
how Pakatan Harapan sees big data companies—as cutting-edge alternatives
to a shackled, unfair electoral system.
is reasoning is complicated. Malaysian citizens can want a free media
environment in which they are not targeted by big data groups. ey may
want to donate to Pakatan Harapan and provide their phone number without
having their Facebook site trawled. ey may be happy to provide information
on a survey but not want to be targeted for political advertising on Twitter.
In short, Invoke’s business model to marry big data campaigning with news
and information, political donations, and phone-polling surveys leads to a
more complex web of interactions with citizens who may not understand that
these facets are all interlinked. Furthermore, if Pakatan Harapan justi es these
strategies as a response to semi-democracy and shackled mainstream media,
now that they have won and democracy is a realistic proposition in Malaysia,
will these companies still be used? If so, how will they be justi ed?
Of course, Invoke was not the only big data company in Malaysia that
was used to counter the semi-democratic system. e Democratic Action
Party (DAP) also hired the Taiwanese company Q Research, which in similar
ways to Invoke has a ‘crawling tool’ to obtain people’s phone numbers and
Facebook IDs (interview with DAP sta er, Kuala Lumpur, December 2017).
e Malay Mail reported a number of other companies that were providing
social-media content analysis and campaign advice, including AutoPolitic
(based in Singapore) and Meltwater (based in San Francisco, US) but they did
not disclose their clients (Boo 2017).

This content downloaded from 139.80.253.0 on Fri, 06 Nov 2020 04:22:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms