Mozilla’s Elections Casebook

Researchers studying platforms outside of North America and the EU often face a distinct set of challenges, as tech platforms consistently fail to craft election policies and interventions that are uniquely suited to the cultural and political landscape in which they operate. Some of these countries have more fragile democratic institutions or saturated media environments, making them especially vulnerable to manipulation or abuse. As noted in new research, platforms tend to take a “copy and paste” approach to their policies for global elections, often failing to detect and process examples of networked hate speech, disinformation, and violence.

Our Elections Casebook, which is an ongoing project, is being launched with three case studies written by researchers who are studying platform dynamics in their respective countries: Brazil, India, and Liberia. The intent of this project is to better understand some of the ways platforms struggle to develop meaningful policies and interventions around elections, especially when faced with complex information environments, languages, and cultural contexts.