Page 143 - Towards_a_New_Malaysia_The_2018_Election_and_Its_6146371_(z-lib.org)

128 Ross Tapsell

to topple us. We are going to use all the technologies that some of our leaders
had failed to leverage on before this. Now they realise how technology can play
a role and can also ensure you have a di erent result’ (Kamles 2018). As stated
earlier, BN campaigners tend to be reactionary, and by GE15 the game may
have changed once again, such that cutting-edge new technologies occupy a
completely di erent landscape. For example, many Malaysians may look to
make their social media settings more private. Others will realise if they engage
in anything on a public social media page, that provides data-analytics rms
with essential material. Once they realise this material is being used to target
them, they may be less interactive in these spaces.
Pakatan Harapan nally achieved success in defeating an electoral-
authoritarian regime through a peaceful transition in the ballot box. Many of
these voters expect a healthier democracy, a more pluralistic society, and a more
transparent political process to ourish as a result. If big data companies and
the strategies they promote have the potential to undermine these goals—and
this research argues that they do—then Malaysia’s new government will need
to think more about how they should be regulated and what broader forces can
be introduced in order to counter a more sectarian, polarised society.

Note
1 In interviews conducted before the CA scandal, every big data campaigner working
with BN, and every BN o cial interviewed for this research, on or o the record, said
CA was not involved in GE14.

References
Azrul Hakimie Anuer. 2018. ‘Cambridge Analytica tiada kaitan dengan kerajaan’.
Utusan Malaysia, 21 May. http://www.utusan.com.my/berita/nasional/cambridge-
analytica-tiada-kaitan-dengan-kerajaan-1.631692.
Belfry Monroe, Kaija. 2018. ‘Constituency Campaigning in the Age of Data’. Canadian
Journal of Political Science 51 (1): 135–54.
Boo Su-Lyn. 2017. ‘How Malaysian politicians use big data to pro le you’. Malay Mail,
10 April. https://www.malaymail.com/s/1352911/how-malaysian-politicians-use-
big-data-to-pro le-you.
Calhoun, Craig. 1992. Habermas and the Public Sphere. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Cam, Deniz. 2017. ‘Trump Campaigns Data Vendor, Cambridge Analytica, Says It Is
Moving Away from US Politics’. Forbes, 9 December. https://www.forbes.com/sites/
denizcam/2017/12/09/trump-campaigns-data-vendor-cambridge-analytica-says-it-
is-moving-away-from-u-s-politics/2/#74f9a9f67eab.

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