Politicians give social media a vote of confidence

Since Barack Obama won the US presidency in 2008 by harnessing the power of online platforms like Facebook, and especially Twitter, others have followed suit, says Carl Miller

EVER since US President Barack Obama’s first, thundering victory in 2008, elections have been changing. The art of winning power happens online as well as offline. By 2012, Obama’s huge digital successes were impossible for other politicians to ignore.

He used his 45m Facebook likes, 23m Twitter followers and a dedicated platform to raise $690m online and to organise hundreds of thousands of offline events. Others quickly followed suit, and, in 2014, India’s Narendra Modi enlisted two million volunteers via the internet, and used it to crowd-source the manifesto of his party, the BJP.