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Protecting Democracy from Outside Interference

Project: Research

Description

Democracies find themselves under threat from outside actors looking to influence the outcome of the election and undermine the trust of voters in the democratic process. Concerns are expressed about the security of the democratic process, in particular the hacking of e-voting and vote counting systems, and disinformation campaigns notably the promulgation of fake news through new social media platforms.

Whilst the threat to democracy often comes from state actors, states often operate at arms-length through non-state actors (Russia and the Internet Research Agency, for example). There are also non-state groups looking to promulgate a certain ‘world view’ and to influence political campaigns in different parts of the world (for example, the work by American Christian right activists supporting efforts to establish a ‘Christian Europe’)

This research project brings together scholars from the disciplines of international law, human rights, criminology, sociology, politics and international relations to examine the problem of outside interference in democratic elections and to reflect on the required responses from policy makers, legislators, regulators, the social media platforms, and citizens themselves.
StatusActive
Effective start/end date19/02/20 → …

Research outputs