- Blurring of lines between political actors and influencers can lead to shadow campaigning and foreign interference
- Updated regulations needed to address use of influencers
With the Canadian election campaign in full swing, social media influencers are integrated into political parties like never before as candidates look to relay their messages to young voters and niche audiences.
Now, a team of researchers led by Professor Elizabeth Dubois of the University of Ottawa have published a new report on the impact influencers have on election campaigns, delving into the impact how popular content creators influence a domain with few rules nor regulations. The 46-page report titled ‘Influencers and Elections: The Many Roles Content Creators Play’ identifies worries over misinformation and disinformation, transparency, data privacy and election interference, including AI generated influence.
Dubois, who leads the Pol Comm Tech Lab, and co-author Louise Stahl led a team that reviewed notable global election campaigns of recent electoral races, including the United States, Germany, Nigeria, India, Brazil, and the United Kingdom while diving into ethical questions and transparency issues arising from these arrangements, including in the run up to Canada’s April 28 federal election.
While typically thought of as just another type of advertisers, the report shows how influencers play a wider variety of political roles such as advertisers, celebrity endorsers, campaign volunteers, data brokers, journalists and media outlets, and lobbyists. This array of roles makes political influencers hard to define, identify, and regulate. Influencers can at once reach new audiences as a force for increased democratic engagement while also being used in problematic ways, allowing for breaches in data privacy, wavering editorial standards, political manipulation and evasion of spending limits and transparency laws, to name a few.
The report recommends regulatory modernization, platform updates for better transparency, influencer education, and media literacy efforts as necessary pillars to strengthen the oversight of influencers on the campaign trail.
“We know social media influencers are being integrated into campaign strategies in many ways and we know their content can resonate strongly with potential voters, what we often don’t know is if and how they are paid, whether they are working with a partisan group, or what their ethical standards are,” says Dubois, a Faculty of Arts professor who is the University Research Chair in Politics, Communications and Technology and Faulty Member of the Centre for Law Technology and Society.
Influencers and Elections: The many roles content creators play by Dubois, E & Stahl, L (2025) is published by the Pol Comm Tech Lab, University of Ottawa. polcommtech.com/ADD. The report was supported by the University Research Chair and the Alex Trebek Forum for Dialogue.
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