What has the Internet done for presidential candidates lately?
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| All the presidential candidates se the Internet as a tool for their campaigns. But some would like to see it restricted. See the 2016 Internet Voter Guide. |
In a recent Nation article, civic technology advocate Micah Sifry heralds the Clinton and Sanders campaigns for using the network to organize potential voters in a way “that has never existed before in American politics.” Leveraging the ubiquity of smartphones and Facebook accounts, they’ve managed to reach millions of people outside traditional politics.
Vox’s Timothy B. Lee credits the Internet for disrupting establishment politics and giving rise to outsider candidates like Sen. Sanders and Donald Trump. Trump’s success “was aided as much by his popularity on cable television as on social media,“ writes Lee.
But it’s the candidates’ use of direct-to-voter platforms like Twitter that is “only going to accelerate in the next few elections.
