European Centre for Counterterrorism and Intelligence Studies, Germany & Netherlands – ECCI

Digital Campaigning: Political Parties Strategies to Influence Voters on Social Media

By Saif Al-Jaberi – Stockholm

Copy of Digital Campaigning_ Political Parties Strategies to Influence Voters on Social Media. Q.docx (1) pdf copy

Abstract

Social media platforms are continuously developing within existing popular platforms as well as new platforms continuously being introduced to the digital world. Social media platforms have dramatically enhanced the experience of engaging in social and political debates which subsequently enhanced voter engagement in the electoral process and the political debate. Therefore, the research aimed to investigate digital campaigning strategies on social media in the Swedish political sphere. By conducting Elite Interviews with politicians and social media experts the study provides valuable information on the strategies employed and implemented by the political parties in Sweden. The study seeks to contribute to the broader understanding of how Swedish political parties navigate on social media in their digital campaigns and social media platforms. The findings of this research disclosed that the Swedish political parties are adopting different approaches on social media such as utilising digital advertisement, targeted content, anonymous accounts to spread disinformation as well as adapting their presence on social media according to the platform and its algorithms to maximise their exposure and reachability and influence voter behaviour. These results highlight the significance of digital campaigning strategies and their impact on the democratic and electoral process.

Keywords

Social media strategies. Digital campaigning. Voter behavior.

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Background        1

2. Literature review 3
3. Aim & Research question 6
4. Theoretical framework 7
5. Research Methodology 9

5.1 Elite Interviews     9

5.2 Material collection 10

5.3 Data analysis   13

5.4 Limitations     13

5.5 Validity  14

5.6 Reliability   15

6. Findings 16

6.1 Presence of Political Parties on Social Media    16

6.2 Platform-Specific Strategies    19

6.2.1 TikTok        20

6.2.2 Facebook     22

6.2.3 Social media platform X    26

6.3 Strategic Use of Disinformation in Digital Campaigns.         27

6.4 Strategies across borders      29

7. Conclusion 32

7.1 Direction for future studies    33

Bibliography      35

1. Introduction

1.1 Background

Social media is considered to have a central role in our contemporary society which has become increasingly noticeable over the past 16 years with the rise of different digital platforms such as Facebook, Tiktok, Instagram and X. Social media is estimated to have billions of users worldwide across different platforms with Facebook being the most popular platform with over 2.9 billion active users.^[1] Social media platforms have transformed many aspects of our daily life and most importantly the way we interact with the democratic process and political debates.^[2]  While social media revolutionized the way we communicate it has also enhanced the level of participation in public and political debates. Traditional media offered a limited level of participation in the political debate compared to social media. In addition to the enhanced level of participation in the democratic process it has also provided a larger range of information that can be accessed and obtained easily with a simple click, thereby increasing transparency for the internet and social media users.^[3]

Social media has managed to establish a central role in the political sphere and political campaigning globally . The effectiveness of social media in political campaigns was to be noticeable for the first time in Barack Obama’s  campaign during the presidential elections in 2008. Barack Obama achieved a historical win in the elections thanks to his media team who  utilized social media as a powerful tool in the election campaign to boost the image of Obama which subsequently influenced the voter behavior and led Obama from being a very little known senator at the time to becoming the 44th president of the United States. According to statistics collected during that campaign, Obama and his digital media team were able to gather over 5 million supporters across different social media platforms such as  Facebook and Myspace.^[4] To illustrate the importance of social media for Obama and his campaign team during the 2008 elections, Chris Hughes who is one of the co-founders of Facebook was hired by Obama’s digital team and he was considered to be a key figure in the Obama’s campaign.^[5]

In the years that followed, this trend of utilizing social media in political digital campaigns reached new heights in the United States during the presidential elections in 2016, specifically by then-candidate Donald Trump. This time the strategy and approach tended to be more direct and aggressive compared to the previous elections. The strategies that were adopted this time targeted politically sensitive issues such as proposing a ban on muslims from entering the United States along with demands for immediate deportation of the illegal immigrants and even publicly insulting his rivals on social media and attacking media channels. This has led X to become an open battleground for Trump in his campaign during the elections.^[6]

The Sweden Democrats were considered to be the most influential party in Sweden on social media during the 2022 elections. ^[7] According statistics by the Media Academy, which is an independent media association that measures and generates data of social media platforms to rank the most influential individuals and organizations on social media, the Sweden Democrats in 2024 are still considered to be the most popular on social media. ^[8]

2. Literature review

Researching Swedish political parties’ strategies on social media to influence voters is relatively underexplored in existing literature. However, according to a research that was conducted by Gothenburg University, there have been several strategies that have been identified that have been employed by Swedish political parties in Sweden. One of the key findings that were presented in this study is that the wealthiest parties in Sweden tend to gain the most visibility on social media since larger parties tend to have significant resources that can be allocated to social media campaigning and digital advertisement. However, even the less wealthier parties have developed strategies of their own on social media such as the Green Party and their use of Micro-Targeting as a key strategy in their 2018 campaign in order to craft tailored messages to specific target groups. The study suggests that political parties are aware of the importance of social media and how it is transforming political communication with the voters since it bypasses the restrictions that once existed when political communication was restricted to traditional media. Social media allows for unrestricted and direct communication between the voter and the political parties. However, based on survey data from the 2022 elections the study claims that social media visibility does not necessarily mean greater chances of electoral success. ^[9]

Traditional media has primarily acted as a barrier to disinformation and misleading news and information whereas social media has opened the door to the ‘’strategic lying’’ phonomenon on social media which is the utilization of disinformation and misleading propaganda by politicians in their digital campaigns. The following study shows how strategic lying has been used as a strategy in the Brexit Referendum and by the Conservatives in the UK in 2019. The study highlights how strategic lying was used in those campaigns by spreading disinformation on social media such as exaggerating the amounts that were paid by the United Kingdom to the European Union and spreading fear among the citizens that Turkey will be joining the EU, particularly to citizens that opposed this idea. The lies were spread intentionally during the campaigns despite being aware that the lies will be disseminated to a large audience. The impact of strategic lying strategy on social media was mostly targeted to the audiences that are supporters of the Conservative Party and the citizens that voted in favor of Brexit. One of the main objectives from using the strategic lying was to keep the national debate aligned with the Conservative Party agenda.^[10]

A recent study on digital political communication suggests that there has been significant developments over the past years in terms of how social media platforms are being utilized by political parties. The study claims that the spread of disinformation is a phenomenon that has exceeded the limit of only sharing fake news. In some cases political parties are willing to go to extreme lengths in order to influence voter behaviour by using propaganda and manipulation techniques in their digital campaigns which have negative effects on the democratic process. The study claims that such strategies are mostly employed by the far-right parties which is reflected by taking former brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s campaign as an evident example of such disinformation campaigns on digital platforms where he focused on spreading disinformation related to COVID during the 2022 elections. This study explores new strategies that have been employed in digital political campaigning with the rise of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence can introduce new risk areas in the future that can heavily impact the democratic process. ^[11] As mentioned earlier in the research Obama’s 2009 Facebook campaign was a starting point for social media campaigning and using the platforms as a strategic tool to mobilize voters. In a separate study, findings disclosed that Obama’s digital campaign team strategically leveraged Facebook as a tool in the elections. The strategies that were used relied mostly on targeting the voter emotions by sharing content that focused on his family and personality. The study mentions that the main strategy that was used in this campaign was to rely on Pathos which refers to appealing to the emotions of the voter in order to influence their voter behaviour. The campaign employed additional strategies such as focusing on spreading online content that strengthened Obama’s credibility. The main objective of using the extensive focus on emotion and personalization in his campaign as a strategy was to make it seem as if the gap between the voters and the candidate is shrinking.  but despite the effort of personalization the campaigns were still considered close-ended and highly managed.^[12]

A separate research on the use of social media in autocratic regimes reveals a different pattern of strategies adopted by the politicians. They are considered to be in absolute control of the digital media and the information that is shared online. Autocratic regimes are adopting censorship as an effective strategy to control the flow of political communication on social media platforms which is a growing phenomenon in such regimes especially with the rapid advancements in technology that introduced the necessary tools to elevate the level of censorship on the internet. Censoring social media and the internet gives the autocratic  regime absolute control of what information that is allowed to be shared and potentially manipulate the public discourse on social media to fit their narrative. Politicians in such regimes are of the freedom social media could provide the average voter if left uncensored where the voters can express their dissatisfaction with the regime and the politicians which is why they try to heavily censor and potentially deleting all negative information. Furthermore, in autocratic regimes social media platforms and the internet are utilized by such governments to monitor the citizens and even the local-level officials. ^[13] While the literature reviewed above offers valuable information on Digital campaigns and its strategies it remains limited in terms of information on the political digital landscape in Sweden. While the literature provides the reader with a perspective of the relationship between social media and political digital campaigning it is still difficult to comprehend the specific strategies that are utilized by the Swedish political parties and Sweden’s unique experience in this field. This research aims to fill this gap and contribute to explain how political parties in Sweden are using social media in their digital campaigns and investigate the different strategies that are used by Swedish political parties on social media platforms.

3. Aim & Research question

This research aims to explore social media strategies that are being utilized within the political sphere in Sweden. Moreover, the research aims to examine the strategies employed by Swedish political parties to influence the voter behaviour and potentially shape the public opinion which can ultimately impact election outcomes. Furthermore, the research aims to investigate how the political parties’ messages and strategies differ across different social media platforms and which elements within the digital platforms may contribute to that. This research seeks to contribute to existing previous research by examining the relationship between the digital campaigning and its impact Swedish politics to gain a broader  understanding of how the political parties in Sweden are influencing the democratic processes and voter behavior through their social media strategies and how different strategies can be utilized to become a significant turning point in future elections. The importance of this research relies on the continuous growing importance of digital platforms in shaping the public discourse and electoral outcomes and the growing reliance of the political parties on the digital platforms in their campaigns. The growing reliance on social media platforms by the politicians raises other concerns for the voters and politicians, including reduced transparency and the rapid spread of disinformation. Unlike traditional media, social media platforms are easily accessible therefore they can be easily manipulated by the politicians and the voters to spread misleading messages, propaganda and disinformation that can influence the opinion of the voters and create a negative effect on the electoral outcomes which underscores the researchers motivation to conduct this study in order to contribute with a new perspective and information on how social media is being utilized in the political sphere. Furthermore, the research aims to briefly examine how digital campaigning strategies differ from other countries by comparing it with one other country that may have witnessed similar issues in their elections and possibly other set of strategies that could be adopted in future elections in sweden.

The research questions that will be used to fulfill the aim of the study are the following:

1. How are the Swedish political parties present on social media platforms and how do they prioritize different platforms?
2. What social media strategies are being utilized by Swedish political parties to influence voter behaviour and how do their messages differ across platforms and target groups?
3. To what extent is disinformation and propaganda used in political communication in the Swedish political sphere and the digital world?
4. How are the strategies used in Sweden similar/different from other countries?

4. Theoretical framework

The theoretical framework for this study will stand on a combination of two frameworks. The combination of Uses and Gratification which is a theory that was introduced by Katz and Blumler and Algorithmic Persuasion framework serves as a foundation for the researcher to analyze how political parties are using digital platforms in their campaigns and explore how they are adopting different approaches and strategies with the help of the presented theories. By integrating the following frameworks they will be able to provide a comprehensive understanding on how the political parties are utilizing and leveraging digital media platforms in their political campaigns to mobilize and influence voters.

Uses and Gratification is a theory that was developed in order to understand  how audiences are considered to be ‘’active participants in the exchange of media’’and a way to understand the reason people consume different media. The interest in researching the gratification media provides to its audience stretches back in history to the beginning of empirical mass communication research. ^[14]  The concept of U&G relies on  the fact that active users of the internet often seek out media in all of its forms whether it is traditional or digital along with social media platforms that meet their specific needs they seek when attending the platforms in order to gratify their needs for entertainment, seeking information and their reliance on digital media to stay updated with the latest news. U&G provides a valuable framework for the researcher to study how political parties are utilizing various strategies on social media to meet their audience needs which could subsequently result in political parties maximising their exposure and reachability on the digital platforms during elections. When researching the political media effects and consumption Uses and Gratification is suggested to remain as an essential element in the field.^[15] Several mass media scholar in the field consider the theory of Uses and Gratification to be a productive method in the field of studying the the relationship between the media and the audience^[16]. By choosing this theory for the research it can potentially provide an understanding on how the Swedish political parties may comprehend and categorize the different needs of their audiences on social media platforms and use it to develop strategies to gratify their needs.

Algorithmic Persuasion is a framework that was developed to provide an enhanced approach to study the communication science field. The framework focuses on explaining the impact of algorithms on digital platforms. Algorithms on social media platforms have a clear effect on the online choices of media users. the term Algorithmic Persuasion in this framework is defined as the attempts that are made by the persuader in order to influence the audience through online communication.^[17]  The framework offers the researcher in this study a perspective on how the political parties in Sweden are operating on social media by adapting their strategies and presence to the algorithms of different platforms to persuade the voters. The framework uses the term ‘’deliberate attempt’’ when describing the action of the persuader to underscore that the attempt is purposefully initiated and can often go unrecognized by the internet user which is an approach that can be adopted by the political candidates during the elections to influence the voters on social media platforms. The foundations of the APF framework is heavily based on existing theories on traditional persuasion and modern theories about personalisation and algorithms and has a circular dynamic that is based on the personalization process model. Furthermore, the framework is supported by non-algorithmic and traditional mediated persusasion.^[18] The motivation behind choosing this framework is to have a foundation that allows the researcher to study how the political parties in Sweden adapt their approach on social media to different algorithms and potentially explore whether they collect voter data in order to create tailored messages and targeted digital ads that can be used to target specific audiences and if they prioritize different content for different platforms. APF is complemented by the U&G to develop a broader perspective on the research question.

5. Research Methodology

In this section the researcher will be presenting the chosen methodology that is employed to conduct this study. Additionally, the researcher will present the material collection process and the approach that was adopted by the researcher to analyse the empirical material along with potential limitations associated with the chosen method.

5.1 Elite Interviews

The primary method that was chosen by the researcher to conduct this study is Elite Interviews. Elite Interviews is a qualitative and exploratory research method that can be in-depth, structured or semi structured. The following method allows the researcher to access information from political elites and individuals with specialist knowledge such as prominent political figures, decision-makers, individuals with certain expertise and leading positions in their field of work. The following method allows the researcher to accumulate in-depth information and data by conducting one-on-one fashioned interviews with the elites and experts where the focus is on the unique characteristics of specific contexts.^[19] This type of insight and information provided by the elites would not be accumulated in any other way.^[20] In order to gather the necessary empirical material for this study the interviews will be conducted with Members of the Parliament and prominent figures holding leading roles in their political parties to provide their unique perspectives and insight on the questions that were presented for the purpose of this study. Additionally, in order to gain a broader perspective on the research questions several interviews will be conducted with social media experts at both national and international level in order to collect information on how political parties are using social media and the strategies being utilized by them on social media and how their strategies could differ from different parties. The interviews with the respondents will be conducted both in person, digitally and via phone calls depending on their schedule and availability.

5.2 Material collection

In order to collect relevant data that can provide comprehensive answers for the research questions, the researchers approach for conducting and choosing the right respondents for the interviews was to include a diverse range of respondents with different expertise and perspectives on the research questions. Another goal that was set for the data collection process was to include representatives from the eight political parties currently in the Swedish Parliament to collect relevant empirical material from all the political parties in order to understand how they operate on social media and most importantly how they operate differently. However, the researcher was unable to achieve this as certain parties either declined to participate or have not provided an answer regarding whether they are willing to participate despite several follow-ups by the researcher with their representatives. The respondents that participated in this research represent the following parties: The Social Democrats, the Moderate Party and the Left Party. In total, there were 3 representatives of the Social Democrats, one representative from the Moderate Party and one representative from the Left Party. Other parties that were sent a request for an interview either declined to participate or did not provide an answer, including the Green Party, Sweden Democrats, Liberal Party and the Christian Democrats and Center Party. However, while conducting the interviews with the participating respondents the researcher was able to collect data and insight about other parties as the participants shared valuable information based on their work which often involves working closely and collaborating with other parties on certain political issues. It is important to emphasize that the Sweden Democrats were a highly recurring theme during the interviews compared to other parties.

In total, there were eight interviews conducted in total in order to collect relevant information and empirical material for the purpose of this research. In this study there were two samples of participants, the first sample focused on Members of the Swedish Parliament that represented the Social Democrats and the Moderate Party and it includes three participants along with two other politicians working in the Digital Communication department for the Social Democrats and the Left Party. The second Sample consists of three participants with social media expertise, two were interviewed with focus on the Swedish level and one with focus on the international level

Sample 1: Serving Members of Parliament and representatives of political parties:

1. Peter Ollen: Serving Member of Swedish Parliament and representative on behalf of the Moderate Party. The interview was conducted in a one-on-one fashioned interview at the Swedish Parliament building. The respondent was asked a set of predetermined questions along with sub questions that emerged from their answers. The respondent was asked about his perspective and knowledge of how his party and other political parties operate on social media. The answers were noted down as the participant answered the question.
2. Jamal El-haj: Serving Member of Parliament and former representative of the Social Democrats. The interview was conducted in a one on one fashioned interview at the Swedish Parliament building through a personal invitation from Jamal El-haj. Jamal El-haj was asked a set of predetermined questions that led to sub-question emerging from his answers. The Sub-questions were mainly about his own personal experience on social media. The answers were noted down as the participant answered the question.
3. Alexander Ojanne: Serving Member of Swedish Parliament, Social and security councillor and representative of the Social Democrats. Alexander Ojannes is particularly relevant to this research because of his active presence on social media in comparison to other respondents, especially on Tiktok. Ojanne shares political messages and videos regularly through his personal account on Tiktok. His active presence on social media highlights the significance for this interview since it allows the researcher to gain a deeper understanding of politicians’ personal use of social media in the political context, as opposed to their formal use through their formal digital communication channels. The interview was conducted through a phone call which lasted around 25 minutes where he was asked a set of predetermined questions along with sub questions emerging during the interview. The answers were noted down as the respondent answered the questions.
4. Örjan Rodhe: Acting Communications Manager, Press Officer and Politician in the Left Party. Örjan Rodhe was asked a set of predetermined questions in the interview which was conducted through a phone call where he was able to give a more detailed understanding on this subject due to the relevancy between his position in the party and the questions of this research. The interviews were transcribed manually by taking notes of the answers that were provided by him.
5. Nina Adler: Digital strategist and representative of the Social Democrats. The interview with Nina Adler was conducted through a phone call that was recorded and transcribed manually. Nina Adler provided valuable insight to the research and the research questions due to the relevance of her position within her party concerning social media and digital strategies. The interview lasted 20 minutes in total.

Sample 2: Social media experts.

1. Emanuel Karlsten: Expert on social media, journalist and a winner of the Swedish grand prize for journalism. The interviews were conducted through a phone call that was recorded and then transcribed manually. Karlsten was able to provide valuable insight based on his expertise in social media and as a journalist on the mobilization of social media in the democratic processes by the Swedish political parties. The interview Lasted 25 minutes.
2. Expand-Talk/Daniel Larsson: Expandtalk is social media consulting company that is based in Sweden. The interview was conducted specifically with Daniel Larsson who is the CEO of the company and expert in social media and Ai. The aim of this interview was to gain specialists insight on how political parties use social media and what observations the company made in their analysis of the political parties strategies over the past years. The interviews were conducted over the phone.
3. Mustafa Abbas Sadik: Expert in digital media, media analysis, terrorist groups and extremism studies. The aim of this interview is to gain perspective on how social media strategies differ between Sweden and other countries. They were a different set of predetermined questions that were prepared for this interview. The interview was conducted over an internet call through WhatsApp.

5.3 Data analysis

Analyzing the data collected from the interviews was conducted with a systematic qualitative approach where the researcher started transcribing the data collected from the interviews manually. Transcribing the data was done in order to ensure that the researcher develops familiarity with the data and to ensure accuracy of the data collected. After transcribing the data multiple times the researcher’s approach was to employ an open coding process. The goal of the coding process was to  identify themes, phrases and keywords that were used to develop key themes. Identifying the themes and recurring phrases and keywords was dealt with based on the research question of this study to identify relevant themes to be used in the analysis and answering the research questions . The interviews were conducted in three languages: Swedish, English and Arabic. Despite the researcher’s knowledge in the three mentioned languages, the researchers approach was to translate the interviews after finishing the transcribing process with the different translating programs to achieve high translation accuracy to interpret the findings as accurately as possible.

5.4 Limitations

There were several limitations and challenges the researcher faced with the method that was chosen to conduct this research. The most difficult challenge is difficulty of access, securing interviews with politicians can be challenging due to their demanding schedules. Sending out interview requests is often time consuming for the reason being that it requires several follow ups and long waiting times to receive a response on whether the respondent is willing to participate with no guarantee of a positive response.

Another main issue that is difficult to be tackled when conducting Elite Interviews is data interpretation, meaning that maintaining impartiality cannot be guaranteed for the reason being that answers provided by the respondents could have a potential risk of being biased and the respondents could have different perceptions of a certain issue.^[21] To collect relevant empirical material that can be used to answer the research questions the first aim that was set by the researcher was to explore the perspective of the eight political parties currently in the Swedish Parliament and how each party is utilizing social media in their political campaigns. However, as mentioned earlier gaining access to certain politicians can often be challenging with a high risk of some respondents turning down the interview request. While interviewing the elites may provide the researcher with an in-depth insight ^[22] politicians often tend to withhold certain information during interviews due to the sensitivity of their positions where some respondents expressed their fear of how their answers might be misinterpreted and manipulated which can cause harm to their reputation in the social and political sphere, an issue that was sometimes solved by the researcher by offering the respondents anonymity. There are many digital platforms and each platform has its unique characteristics which allows the political parties to use it in different ways which they consider effective, therefore studying digital campaigning strategies on social media requires large volumes of empirical material therefore requiring more respondents and experts to provide a more comprehensive understanding on this topic. The number of interviews the researcher conducted may not represent the broader spectrum. Due to the time limitation that was set for this research by the institution this issue was not able to be tackled.

5.5 Validity

Validity refers to whether the chosen method can truly measure what needs to be measured in a research.^[23] In order to maintain high validity in this research the researcher designed the research questions to align very accurately with the purpose of this research and its goals. Next step was to transcribe and analyze the data multiple times. Furthermore, questions were reviewed carefully and enhanced several times to ensure they can truly measure and collect relevant and accurate data to answer the research questions. To achieve an acceptable level of validity in this study the respondents were asked the same questions even at times where some questions led to other sub questions the researcher made sure to return to the main questions of the research. Questions were sometimes repeated if the time allowed or if the respondent had a wrong interpretation of a certain question to ensure collecting the correct data.

5.6 Reliability

Reliability in scientific research refers to the consistency of the measurement approach that was used to conduct a study meaning that if the study were to be replicated in the same way with the same method and conditions it will be able to produce similar results.^[24] Interviews were conducted with politicians and experts in order to ensure having only a trustworthy source of information to collect empirical material from for this study along with interview questions that are influenced by the theoretical framework. Considering the fact that all eight respondents agreed to participate with their names publicly supports the reliability and ensures that similar answers will be given if the study were to be replicated as most politicians will only share insight that represents a true reflection they want to share with the public of their knowledge since the information and their statements will be available to the public through this study. The reliability in a study is also dependent on the researcher to transcribe the collected data as accurately as possible. The respondents were interviewed in a structured fashioned interview to ensure consistency across all eight interviews. However, considering the continuous development of social media platforms and technology can affect the reliability if a long period of time has passed. ^[25]

6. Findings

6.1 Presence of Political Parties on Social Media

According to the respondents, the approaches adopted by Swedish political parties on social media, as well as other platforms they use, vary from party to party. While some political parties are adapting their presence and strategies according to the advancements of social media, other parties are still using social media in a more traditional way. Despite the differences in how they operate on digital platforms the majority of the political parties in Sweden have a mutual understanding of the importance of social media as an essential part of their political campaigns online which is what motivates them to engage with their audience on all platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok and even upcoming social networks like Bluesky. This statement by the respondents provide support for the concept of Uses and Gratification theory which relies on  the fact that active users of the internet often seek out media in all of its forms to gratify their needs of entertainment, seeking information which motivates the political parties to be present on different platforms to fulfill that feeling of gratification in different forms for their audiences. However, the majority of the respondents highlighted the importance of social media in political campaigns does not exclude the importance of their presence on traditional media as they often go hand in hand and are used together to maximise the reachability of their political message as emphasized by the following respondent:

‘’I don’t think we can pit social media and traditional media against each other, in my opinion they are deeply interconnected. A lot of what’s big on social media becomes big on traditional media and vice versa’’ ^[26]

Another common understanding that was shared by the majority of the respondents is the significance of each social media platform and how they rank them in terms of their importance and effectiveness. Tiktok is a platform that was a highly recurring theme in the interviews several times and the respondents considered it to be important for two main reasons. First reason is that it is a platform that is dominated by the youth and it provides a great platform to engage and target the younger audience. The second reason as the respondents claim is that TikTok is a platform that surpasses other platforms in popularity by a large margin therefore politicians can expect much more interaction and feedback from their followers on this platform compared to other platforms. However, popularity of a social platform is not the sole element that justify the choice of the digital platform, for example respondents unanimously agreed that X might not be as popular in terms of interactions with voters compared to other platforms but it still remains valuable to them since it provides the means to reach a large number of respondents though the large number of journalist and opinion leaders on this platform. X is a platform favored by the journalists and opinion leaders which provides great and easy access to the media for the political parties in cases where they want to share political messages to an audience that rely on traditional media as a source of news and information. The strategy in this case is to reach the journalists and opinion leaders on the X who subsequently share those political messages in their newspapers which is effective in transferring the political messages from the digital platforms to the traditional media. A number of statements and insight shared by the respondents disclosed that political parties are closely monitoring the development of social media platforms through their digital communications team to analyse their effectiveness and reliability which subsequently influence what platforms they prioritize and invest in to spread their political messages as highlighted by the following respondent:

‘’In the 1920s, people went to the market and organized people in workplaces, schools, and in the same way, politicians adapted to the digital development today. If people are on speedway then it is good if political parties are on speedway, if people are on Tiktok then politicians should be on Tiktok and so on’’ ^[27]

However, another respondent expressed a contrasting view on this matter arguing that in-person interactions and door knocking can be more effective than interacting with the voters on social media since it creates a more personalized experienced as highlighted in the following statement:

‘’There is no doubt that social media is important for political campaigning. However, i think interacting with voters in person, knocking on doors and having real conversations with them has an even greater impact ’’ ^[28] 

Presence on social media in contemporary society is considered to be essential to political parties in their political campaign to reach larger audiences and mobilize voters. The continuous race on social media between the political parties to reach more popularity than their opposition is a clear indication of that. In terms of presence and popularity on social media, respondents unanimously agreed that the largest party on social media is the Sweden Democrats and consider them to be more advanced than other parties in terms of how they utilize social media in their political campaigns and the strategies they use. The following statement by this respondent underscores this fact:

‘’In terms of presence on social media and popularity i think that the strongest party on social media is the Sweden Democrats, other parties have tried to reach the same level of success on social media but haven’t yet been able to’’^[29].

The reason behind this popularity of the Sweden Democrats was further emphasized by other respondents who highlighted some of the key factors to their success on social media:

‘’It’s about having some kind of your own ecosystem on social media, and the Sweden Democrats have been working on building an ecosystem of their own for a long time, they organized themselves on social media by adopting different approaches and strategies to organise their presence. Our party and other parties have been much slower with adapting similar methods’’^[30]

According to the information that was shared by the respondents on this matter, it was revealed that the political parties’ presence on social media varies significantly between the parties in Sweden, there are parties that are considered to have weaker presence than other parties while others established a more powerful one. One of the important elements that could contribute to having a strong presence on social media is adaptation to social media and working on the digital strategies have occurred faster for some parties than others. According to the respondents, having a strong presence on social media is crucial for every political campaign in today’s digital age, having a strong presence is not necessarily enough to win an election on its own but it gives strong advantages in terms of giving the powerful parties on social media the ability to steer the political debate online which is something that has been clearly highlighted by several respondents such as the following:

‘’Today, the parties that own the most popular platforms, they own quite a lot.’’ ^[31]

According to the insights shared by the respondents, there are clear indications that certain social media platforms hold more power than other platforms in terms of popularity and reachability which influence the choice of platform and resource allocation. In terms of platform popularity, the findings revealed great advantages of platforms such as Tiktok over other platforms such as Facebook and X.

‘’Tiktok is the most effective platform in terms of popularity for political work and digital campaigning. I personally get the most interactions on tiktok. However, Facebook is starting to get less interactions from users in my opinion’’ ^[32]

The previous statement along with other statements by the respondents highlights the growing importance of TikTok as a platform in the political sphere because of its ability to reach audiences that are relatively harder to reach than others such as the youth voters and in terms of the exposure it can provide for their political messages.

6.2 Platform-Specific Strategies

According to respondents, social media is an ever-evolving medium which has led to political parties to develop approaches and strategies accordingly. The reason for this dynamic development in strategies and platform choices is to insure the effectiveness of their strategies to maximise audience reachability and maintain a strong presence on social media. Respondents stressed this point by expressing their thoughts on the issue and how they are experiencing certain platforms to become less popular and effective, while other platforms are growing dramatically in popularity within the political digital campaigning. There are several elements that have contributed to this development such as age demographics that dominate  certain platforms, updates within platforms, policies of their companies, and the tools that digital platforms offer to their users.

6.2.1 TikTok

The respondents indicated that digital platforms are categorized by the political parties into groups and each platform serves a particular purpose in their campaigns. TikTok as a platform is a highly recurring theme in the interviews where majority of the respondents pointed that it is considered to be a popular platform and beginning to have a significant impact on the political sphere and the importance of this platform will be evident in future elections as the following respondent stated:

‘’I think there are only a few political parties that are good at using TikTok as a tool in their political campaigns. but I think in the next election in 2026 Tiktok will have a bigger role in the elections.’’ ^[33]

The respondents’ insights revealed a mutual understanding that TikTok is utilized by political parties to target the youth voters. Typically, political issues hold little interest for youth voters and TikTok with its unique characteristics and algorithm introduced the perfect solution for the political parties to be able to interact with this age demographic. The Moderate Party is an outstanding example that reflects how TikTok can be used as a tool to target the youth to activate their interest by adopting a strategy on the platform that aligns with the narrative of youth voters. The TikTok algorithm is often driven by popular memes, musical and dance trends. Each day, new trending topics, memes and songs emerge and the teenagers engage with the trends interacting with them through liking, commenting and sharing the content and also by participating in the trends since they give the most exposure and views.^[34]

The Moderate Parties digital team has to adopt a unique approach on their official channel on TikTok as a strategy to attract the youth interest and deliver political content and messages through that strategy to catch the youth voters attention. The strategy includes participating in similar trends that are popular on the platform among the youth and teenagers. The following findings aligns with the theoretical expectations of Algorithmic Persuasion. A significant amount of content was often designed to make it seem like the Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is participating in the trends himself. The respondents were asked about this strategy and they were able to share their thoughts on this issue and the unusual image of the Prime Ministers that is being portrayed on TikTok by his digital team and the following statements are what they had to say on this matter:

‘’I can say that I know the prime minister well enough to know that he is not aware of this. This is a strategy was adopted by his digital communication team to narrow the gap between him and the youth voters.’’ ^[35]

Furthermore, two of the other respondents shared their views on how the Moderate Party is operating on Tiktok and the approach they are adopting and stated the following:

‘’The Moderate party are adopting this strategy create an easygoing image of the Prime Minister and that is their way of adapting to the channel.’’^[36]

‘’Throughout history, political parties and politicians have always sought to be where the people are. That is why politicians today have adapted to the digital development of the modern era.’’^[37]

The respondents’ reflections are a clear indicator that some political parties are following the developments of social media platforms and adjusting their strategies accordingly to fit the different platforms. One of the strategies they are employing to strengthen their presence on social media is improving their digital communication team as an investment to create a well informed team on social media developments which subsequently helps them to develop strategies to maintain a strong presence on social media platforms as highlighted by the following respondent:

‘’According to my knowledge the Moderate Party has built a new digital team that seems to have new techniques and approaches on social media by studying the current trends on TikTok for example which are subsequently utilized in creating content related to those trends.’’ ^[38]

The Moderate Party has developed a digital team that is adopting a unique strategy of combining politics and humor together as tailored content to target a hard to reach demographic. With the help of this strategy they are able to deliver their political messages while still being relevant to that age demographic which reflects the theoretical notion of Uses and Gratification, there is a clear indication that the Moderate adopt this strategy in order to give their audience a sense of gratification through their content that they specifically tailor to target that group and their needs. While this approach is effective for the Moderate Party, other respondents shared a contrasting perspective on this strategy considering it to be controversial as highlighted in the following statement:

‘‘It is necessary for the political parties to find a balance in the type of content they  share on social media. I understand the importance of reaching out to certain age demographics by engaging with popular trends on TikTok and adopting certain strategies, but i think it can come across as superficial if you focus solely on this.’’^[39]

6.2.2 Facebook

Unlike TikTok, Facebook is leveraged by the political parties to target working-age and elderly social media users. According to the respondents, there has been several developments within the platform in terms of age demographics and the platform its popularity, while Facebook is still a large platform with billions of registered users,  the respondents expressed how the political parties are receiving significantly less interactions on the platform in comparison to other platforms such as Tiktok and instagram. However, they have not fully denied the effectiveness of the platforms in certain aspects. Respondents highlighted that Facebook is a strong platform to create digital ads for their campaigns since the platform provides powerful tools that can be used in creating and tailoring targeted ads. Those tailored ads and messages can be freely customized to target specific areas, age demographics and communities. On Facebook and Meta platform, the more you pay the more your messages will reach a larger audience which is slightly different from TikTok that mostly relies on trendy videos and content that are popular to be featured in their front page which is displayed to a very large number of users. Respondents expressed in their statements that Facebook is considered effective for sharing formal content and writing long paragraphs that consist of discussions about political and social issues. the following statements expresses how Facebook is categorized in the Swedish political sphere:

‘’According to our party, Facebook is seen as traditional platform that offer slightly different tools from other platforms such as allowing us to share long paragraphs that consist of our political messages which is nearly impossible to do on other platforms.’’ ^[40]

The interviews presented a common conclusion among respondents that Facebook is a platform that is best suited for targeting the older age demographics and superior in terms of the digital advertising tools that it offers.  According to the respondents, digital advertisement has always been a fundamental part of every political campaign, it stretches all the way back to traditional media where political parties used to share their political messages ads on newspapers and Tv channels. However, social media platforms has transformed the dynamics of ads in many aspects such as being cost effective and more powerful in terms of reachability compared to traditional methods of advertising ^[41]. Meta platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp) and specifically Facebook is a platform that serves as a compelling illustration of how advanced modern digital advertising works. Meta offers many advanced and complex tools that allow the advertiser to choose the objectives that suit their goal and give them the ability to create targeted ads to reach a specific audience. According to Meta their online ads are highly adjustable in terms of reachability, the advertiser can freely decide where the ads will be displayed in terms of location, gender and interest with the help of facebook data analytics which aligns with a main component of the Algorithmic Persuasion framework which is called Input that describes the collection of user data to be used later in creating content to match a specific algorithm within the platform to target the voters. Moreover, Meta’s advertisement services has smart features that allow the advertisement to adjust itself gradually and learn the behaviour of the targeted groups to narrow further the audience to reach the right people ^[42]. According to the respondents, digital advertising is a crucial tool that can be utilized in political campaigns and can be highly effective to reach the voters. However, the large political parties in Sweden are often the parties that have better financial advantages which allows them to use digital advertisements in their political campaigns extensively. This point was emphasized by the following respondent:

‘’Digital ads on social media are an important tool for reaching out and communicating with voters, I also think that my party (the Left Party) should spend a lot more money on digital ads if we had the same budget as other parties have.’’^[43]

The reason respondents have categorized digital ads as an effective strategy to be used in their digital campaigns and maintain a strong presence on social media is the nature of modern digital ads and the variety of the powerful tools available that can be utilized when creating ads. However, as the previous respondent stated, this is a tool that is best utilized by the wealthy parties which was pointed out once more by the following respondent:

‘’Political parties are very aware of the importance of presence on social media that’s why there is political parties like the Sweden Democrats and Social Democrats dedicating large amounts of money for social media advertisements.’’^[44]

In regards to the previous statement, the following table illustrates the total spending of the political parties across Meta platforms (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) on digital ads that consist of political messages .The table illustrate how the Social Democrats and Sweden Democrats do indeed spend the most amount of money on social media ads compared to other parties which supports the previous statement provided by the respondent. The data retrieved from Facebook spending tracker shows spendings of the political parties on ads during the past 90 days as of 23 December and 90 days prior to that. However the table does not provide accurate measurements of how much political parties spend over time as it varies largely from period to period according to observations that were done prior to the research by the researcher.

Fig. 1. Political Parties spendings on Meta Ads between 23 Sep – 23 Dec.

Note: Adapted from Facebook’s spending tracker tool.

(https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/report/)

Furthermore, a survey that was conducted by the SVT is well aligned with the previous statement and reveals that one of the most popular videos by political parties in Sweden was Jimmie Åkessons ‘’A speech to the nation’’ where the party spent around 200.000SEK to promote this video through digital ads which allowed the video to garner over 10 million views. In the same Article Mats Knutsson who is a Swedish journalist stated that this approach of utilizing digital ads on a video that targeted the emotions of the voters to mobilize them is something that we haven’t witnessed in Sweden before.^[45]

Among the responses, one participants statement stood out during the discussion about the budgets spent on digital ads which disclosed that the public numbers shared by the platforms on the budgets that were spent by the political parties on their official channels is not always an accurate measurement of the reality:

‘’One can not only look at the publicly disclosed budget that was spent by political parties on digital ads. There is also large amounts of money that is used to create advertisements through the politicians personal social media pages instead of the official page of the political parties. That money is usually hard to trace so the numbers you see on the statistics provided by Facebook spending tracker for example are not an accurate representation of the real amounts that are spent on digital advertisements.’’^[46]

6.2.3 Social media platform X

During the discussion about the different platforms with the respondents, they highlighted a common strategy that political parties are adopting on X. The strategy consists of using the platform to serve as a means to an end. On X the political parties target the journalists and opinion leaders who subsequently  share their political messages with their audiences The political messages on X can be shared in two different ways, the first one is to deliver the message to the opinion leaders with a large base of followers that rely on them as a credible source of information. The second strategy is to deliver the political messages and announcements within their parties to the journalists in order to reach audiences on X and traditional media. In other cases politicians try to reach an audience outside Sweden when there are discussions about EU laws and developments. In this aspect, the platform serves as a great tool to reach across borders. X serves as a meeting point between the politicians and journalists. However, there is often a trade off when taking this approach as politicians don’t have the freedom of decision on whether the journalists and opinion leaders will share those messages or how they decide to interpret and share them in comparison to using their own official where they have the ultimate freedom to share their desired political content . The following respondent statement defines the nature of X as a platform:

‘’On X political parties and politicians are fully aware that this platform is heavily populated with journalists. This easy access to journalists allow the politicians to share important political messages and information about their campaign in order to let the journalists share it further to a larger audience.’’^[47]

However, there seem to be some concern among the politicians about the credibility of the platform since Elon Musk bought ownership of the platform as the following respondent highlighted:

‘’‘The most reliable platform for us when we want to deliver important information during election campaigns used to be X, but now our view about the credibility of the platform has somewhat changed after Elon Musk decided to buy it.’’^[48]

According to the interviews that were conducted with the respondents there does not seem to be special strategies that are used on this platform apart from the previously mentioned strategies. However, the respondents define the platform as a tool that provides easy access to opinion leaders with a large follower base and strong influence on their audience as well as being a tool that provides easy access to the journalists in Sweden and worldwide.

6.3 Strategic Use of Disinformation in Digital Campaigns.

When the researcher touched on the issue of disinformation on digital campaigns the respondents disclosed that certain political parties do not always follow the ethical codes of political campaigning on digital platforms and could be willing to use strategies that cross certain boundaries. The research previously highlighted the use of disinformation, propaganda and strategic lying in political campaigns, the same practices are not unfamiliar within the Swedish political sphere. Several respondents were willing to openly express their thoughts about this phenomenon and expressed their concerns of this issue and the negative impact it has on the democratic process. The ‘’Troll Factory’’ that was a highly recurring theme during the interviews is an outstanding example that illustrates the concern of the politicians. The Sweden Democrats adopted a distinct approach in their strategies compared to other parties by employing and creating anonymous accounts that were used to share and spread disinformation and propaganda. This type of strategy aligns well in line with the concept of strategic lying that were highlighted in the literature review in the previously mentioned study that were conducted on this phenomenon as a strategy and how it has been employed in the Brexit Referendum and the 2019 U.K General elections.^[49]

The insights shared by the respondents on this issue have also aligned with an undercover operation by the TV4 in Sweden on their famous program kalla-fakta that shed light on the troll factory to the public. The undercover operation discovered that the anonymous accounts factory was run from the  Sweden Democrats offices where they created a large number of anonymous accounts to share content that manipulated the political debate on social media. This phenomenon was witnessed for the first time in the Swedish political sphere. The Tv-program Kalla Fakta which operates as an investigative journalism program and their reporter managed to infiltrate the Communication Department of  the Sweden Democrats and gather evidence of the anonymous accounts factory.^[50] There has been several significant discoveries during the undercover investigation:

• The Sweden Democrats had 23 accounts on different social media platforms that were used to spread their agendas and manipulate the political debate anonymously
• Employing two social media influencers to help spread their agenda.
• An anonymous account that were used to spread humor and jokes content as an effective way to convince teenagers to vote for their party
• Creating deep fake artificial intelligence material that mimics other party leaders such as AI generated videos to mislead the voters. ^[51]

This issue led several politicians, including Linus Sköld, a Member of the Parliament and the Social Democrats to call for immediate actions against this issue through a written question to the State Council on how the political parties are planning to tackle this issue. Furthermore, he stressed for immediate actions for the reason being that social media is an important source of news and information for the voters and specifically for the youth voters. ^[52] This is a strong indication that there is awareness of how the manipulation of social media could result in severe effects on the democratic process and mislead the voters’ perception which illustrates the level of influence social and digital media has on the public opinion. Moreover, this serves as an indication of the Sweden Democrats’ awareness of the impact of social media on the public opinion which led them to adopt such strategies in their digital campaigns to win the elections. A unanimous perspective among the respondents was the impact of disinformation as a strategy that goes against the ethical code of political campaigning and the negative impact it has on the democratic process, an impact that might be a benefit to certain political parties but comes with a risk of losing transparency. Meanwhile Sweden Democrats provide a clear example of how political parties engage in disinformation campaigns as a strategy to manipulate the public opinion, this does not exclude other parties from employing similar strategies. This is an argument that is highlighted by the following respondent based on his experience from working closely political parties digital departments previously:

‘’The Sweden Democrats aren’t the only party that used anonymous accounts to spread disinformation and propaganda. However, i believe the only reason they were able to be exposed is that they carried out this operation in their own offices opposed to other parties that might hire agencies to do that for them.’’^[53]

However, the definition of disinformation can differ from person to person and can be seen in different ways as stated by the following respondent:

‘’For the Swedish political parties social media is way more effective in creating disinformation than it is for combating it. However, defining disinformation is complex, for certain audiences its disinformation and for some others it’s simply an opinion.’’^[54]

6.4 Strategies across borders

The final goal of this research was to briefly look at how the Swedish political sphere is different from other countries on this issue. To achieve this the researcher allocated one interview with Dr Mustafa Abbas Sadik who is an expert on digital media, media analysis, terrorist groups and extremism studies in the International Center for Strategic Studies and Research. The aim was to compare Sweden to several countries but due to the limitations set for this study by the institution and the busy schedule of the respondent there was room for only one country to be discussed in detail during the interview. The researcher and the respondent came to an agreement to compare Sweden to the United Kingdom’s latest general elections and the differences and similarities of strategies between the two countries.

The first step was to take a look at the strategies of the Labor Party and the Conservative Party in the latest general elections in 2024 to further contextualize the findings and compare it with the Swedish political parties.

According to the respondent, much like the differences within the Swedish political parties in their strategies on social media, The UK general elections in 2024 witnessed similar disparities between the Conservative Party and the Labour Party in particular. The first issue the respondent shed light on was the substantial budget allocated by the Conservative Party to digital campaigning in the early stages of their political campaign and prior to the elections. The significance of their budget was highlighted in the following statement:

‘’The Conservatives started their campaigns prior to the elections with solid foundations and a very large budget that were spent on digital advertising. This budget was to promote their premade political messages that was made prior to the elections through digital ads.’’^[55]

However, the Conservative Party ended up pausing this strategy by pausing all their digital advertising across different platforms such as the Meta platforms and google advertisement.^[56] Additionally the respondent highlighted another strategy by the Conservative Party as mentioned in the previous statement where they created pre-made high quality content for their digital campaigns. Despite the content being well executed and professionally created it remains one of the reasons behind their loss in the elections. In the process of making this content they used widespread data analytics in order to tailor different content to target different audiences. Regarding the Labour Party, the respondent explained how they adopted a different approach that is based on the nature of their party of being more connected with their voters especially through in-person interactions rather than deepening digital platforms to interact with them which he consider as a better approach than collecting data of the voters to understand their personalities and needs as the respondent highlighted:

‘’Data analytics and data collection of the voters that is used in the digital campaigns that are stored by the political parties is not enough to make you understand the characteristics and needs of your voters and it can not replace the direct in-person communication with the voters.’’^[57]

This statement reinforces a previous remark made by Alexander Ojanne where he highlighted the importance of in-person interaction with the voters through door knocking and meeting the voters in person to create a more personal experience. The respondent emphasized that the strategy adopted by the Labour Party strategy on social media is similar to their practices on the ground by focusing on making the voter feel more connected and involved. This was achieved by using the Live broadcasting function often on their digital platforms from their campaigns on the ground to involve the voters in the real events on the ground such as conferences and awareness campaigns. According to the respondent this approach was deemed to be both positive and negative since live broadcasting can make the party issue statements and comment on issues in the moment of the event that might contradict their electoral program.

In terms of disinformation campaigns the respondent highlighted that the Conservative Party were better prepared to counteract disinformation with their premade political messages and content for that matter opposed to the Labour Party that was considered to be slower in that process than the Conservative Party.

‘’All the parties during the general elections were a target of disinformation campaigns. However, the Conservative Party was generally better prepared considering the large budget they allocated on their premade content and digital campaign.’’ ^[58]

Despite the large amounts of money that were spent by the Conservative Party on social media and digital campaigning, the respondent concluded that the philosophy of the Labour Party which is closely tied to his audience gave them advantage on digital platforms which subsequently translates into an advantage in the elections since digital media is consumed by the same audience they meet through their in-person interactions with the voters. This brief exploration of the strategies that were utilized by the political parties in the 2024 general elections conclude there are similarities between certain Swedish parties strategies and the UK political parties strategies. similarities in strategies include dedicating significant budgets for digital ads during the electoral process. However, by comparing the two countries they both show a clear indication that digital ads and allocating a substantial financial budget to digital campaigns is not enough on its own to win the elections. The Conservative party’s  spending on digital ads is somewhat similar to the Sweden Democrats, yet it was not enough to lead them to an electoral win despite their growing popularity on social media platforms and their unique strategies. Furthermore, the interviews with the left-wing/Center-left politicians in Sweden such as the Social Democrats and Left Party highlights how their philosophy on campaigning is similar to the Labour party in the UK by focusing on in-person interactions and not just relying on the digital media to interact with the voters.

Moreover, political parties in the United Kingdom are employing strategies that are less common and perhaps unfamiliar in the Swedish political sphere such as extensively relying on widespread data analytics.

7. Conclusion

This study aimed to study how political parties in Sweden are mobilizing social media in their digital campaigns specifically focusing on the strategies they use. Furthermore the study aimed to see the differences in how political parties operate on social media in comparison to each other and finally conduct a brief comparison of how the strategies used in Sweden are different from other countries. The findings from data collected during the interviews that were conducted with the respondents revealed that there is a significant gap between how political parties operate on social media in terms of their presence and how they utilize different social media strategies as an effective tool in their campaigns. The right wing parties in Sweden have shown to be more effective and successful in utilizing different social media strategies in their digital campaigns compared to the Left wing parties based on the samples and collected data used to conduct this study. However, there seems to be a common approach adopted by the majority of the political parties which is to create tailored political messages and employ different according to the  platform they are using since different platforms house different communities and age demographics and are steered by different types of algorithms. Moreover, the Moderate Party and the Sweden Democrats have shown to be more superior in terms of their influence on digital platforms compared to the rest of the political parties as a result of their unique approaches and strategies they adopted which is considered to be ahead of other political parties who tend to be more conservative and traditional in their approach on digital platforms. There are several strategies  identified in this research that are used in digital campaigning that range between moderate to extreme approaches. The most important result in terms of the strategies used in Sweden is the use of anonymous accounts in spreading propaganda and developing digital communication teams that study and monitor the platforms in order to adapt their content and strategies according to the nature and algorithm of the platform. Digital ads is a strategy that is heavily used in digital campaigns in order to maintain strong presence and enhance reachability to the voters. However, results in this research shows that this approach is limited to the wealthier parties with access to substantial  budgets that enable them to invest heavily in digital advertisements.

In addition to the noticeable gap between the Swedish political parties and their social media approaches, there seems to be a gap between Sweden and other countries such as the United Kingdom, mainly because of the extensive use of data collection and analytics which is considered to be an uncommon phenomenon in Sweden.  While social media platforms serve as an effective tool for the political parties in their digital campaigns, there are several indicators that were found  concluding  that utilizing social media and their strategies are not enough on their own and in most cases do not replace traditional media or traditional campaign approaches.

7.1 Direction for future studies

Technology and social media are rapidly evolving. One of the newest advancements introduced to the digital world is Artificial intelligence (AI) that emerged to be a central aspect of our daily lives in contemporary society. Artificial intelligence occupies a central role today in different aspects of our daily life such as workplaces and educational institutions and it is integrated into most technological devices we use today. Artificial intelligence is slowly being integrated with political work and political campaigning. Looking ahead, Artificial intelligence could become an important tool in political and digital campaigning. Utilizing AI in digital campaigns could be done in several ways such as creating chatbots for the political parties that can interact with the voters, help the politicians in developing new strategies and approaches on digital platforms and could possibly be an assistant for the political parties in the decision making process in the future. Future research should focus on exploring how AI can impact the democratic process and political campaigning and electoral outcomes. Furthermore, AI is a powerful tool that can allow anyone, even the average internet user, to create professional content that is very realistic within seconds which is another perspective to consider when conducting future research in order to measure to what extent that can be exploited to create disinformation and propaganda in the political sphere and its implication on transparency, both by the political parties and the voters.

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^[5] Ellen McGirt, “How Chris Hughes Helped Launch Facebook and the Barack Obama Campaign,” Fast Company, March 17, 2009. https://www.fastcompany.com/1207594/how-chris-hughes-helped-launch-facebook-and-barack-obama-campaign

^[6]  Flores , Priscilla L., “Social Media’s Influence on Political Communication: A Content Analysis of Donald Trump’s Tweets in the First 100 Days of His Presidency” (2018). Theses and Dissertations. 228. https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/etd/228

^[7] Sverigedemokraterna är mäktigast på sociala medier. (n.d.-b). Altinget – Allt Om Politik: altinget.se. https://www.altinget.se/artikel/sverigedemokraterna-ar-maktigast-paa-sociala-medier

^[8] Årets Makthavare 2024 – Medieakademin. (2024, October 8). Medieakademin. https://medieakademin.se/arets-makthavare-2024/

^[9] University of Gothenburg, 2024. *Väljarna och valet*. University of Gothenburg. Available at: https://www.gu.se/sites/default/files/2024-05/Valjarna_och_valet.pdf

^[10]  Gaber, I., & Fisher, C. (2022). “Strategic Lying”: The Case of Brexit and the 2019 U.K. Election. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 27(2), 460-477. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161221994100

^[11]López-López, P. C., Barredo-Ibáñez, D., & Jaráiz-Gulías, E. (2023). Research on Digital Political Communication: Electoral Campaigns, Disinformation, and Artificial Intelligence. Societies, 13(5), 126. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13050126

^[12]Gerodimos, R., & Justinussen, J. (2014). Obama’s 2012 Facebook Campaign: Political Communication in the Age of the Like Button. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 12(2), 113–132. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2014.982266

^[13] Zhuravskaya, E., Petrova, M., & Enikolopov, R. (2020). Political effects of the internet and social media. Annual Review of Economics, 12(1), 415–438. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-economics-081919-050239

^[14] The Public Opinion Quarterly Vol. 37, No. 4 (Winter, 1973-1974), pp. 509.

^[15]Ruggiero, T. E. (2000). Uses and Gratifications Theory in the 21st Century. Mass Communication and Society, 3(1), 3–37. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327825MCS0301_02

^[16]Ibid

^[17] Zarouali, B., Boerman, S.C., Voorveld, H.A.M. and van Noort, G. (2022), “The algorithmic persuasion framework in online communication: conceptualization and a future research agenda”, Internet Research, Vol. 32 No. 4, pp. 1076-1096. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-01-2021-0049

^[18]Ibid

^[19] Vivien Lowndes, David Marsh, and Gerry Stoker, eds., Theory and Methods in Political Science, 4th ed. (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), p246.

^[20]Koeker, P. (Academic). (2017). An introduction to elite interviewing [Video]. Sage Research Methods. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473968660

^[21]Lilleker, D. G. (2003). Interviewing the Political Elite: Navigating a Potential Minefield. Politics, 23(3), 207-214. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9256.00198

^[22] Tim May, Social Research: Issues, Methods and Process (4th ed.; Open University Press, 2010) 131.

^[23] Bryman, A. (2016). Social Research Methods (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. Chapter 7.

^[24] Ibid

^[25] Ibid

^[26] Örjan Rodhe.

^[27] Ibid

^[28] Alexander Ojanne.

^[29] Jamal El-haj.

^[30] Nina Adler.

^[31] Ibid

^[32] Alexander Ojanne.

^[33] Peter Ollen

^[34] Adam Rosen, How TikTok’s algorithm fosters viral trends, The New York Times, December 5, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/05/business/media/tiktok-algorithm.html?smid=url-share.

^[35] Peter Ollen

^[36] Nina Adler

^[37] Örjan Rodhe

^[38] Jamal El-haj

^[39] Alexander Ojanne.

^[40] Ibid

^[41] Hanekom, J., & Scriven, C. (2002). Traditional and online advertising: an explanation of current and future trends. Communicatio, 28(1), 49–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/02500160208537957

^[42] Facebook. (N.d). Ad targeting options.

https://www.facebook.com/business/ads/ad-targeting

^[43] Örjan Rodhe

^[44] Jamal El-haj

^[45] Nyheter, S. (2024, June 18). Jimmie Åkessons tal till nationen: Svenska EU-valrörelsens mest sedda? SVT Nyheter. https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/jimmie-akessons-tal-till-nationen-svenska-eu-valrorelsens-mest-sedda

^[46] Jamal El-haj

^[47] Jamal El-haj

^[48] Peter Ollen

^[49] Gaber, I., & Fisher, C. (2022). “Strategic Lying”: The Case of Brexit and the 2019 U.K. Election. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 27(2), 460-477.

^[50] Andersson, D., & Hellerud, E. (2024, May 23). Här avslöjas SD:s trollfabrik – reportern jobbade undercover. TV4 Nyheterna. https://www.tv4.se/artikel/2VCWExxK0L1Xmai2Y60Z2/kalla-fakta-avsloejar-sd-driver-en-trollfabrik

 

^[51] Ibid

^[52] Politiskt vinklad desinformation i sociala medier (Skriftlig fråga 2023/24:889 av Linus Sköld (S)). (n.d.). Sveriges Riksdag. https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/skriftlig-fraga/politiskt-vinklad-desinformation-i-sociala-medier_hb11889/

 

^[53] Daniel Larsson/Expandtalk

^[54] Emanuel Karlsten.

^[55] Dr. Mustafa Abbas Sadik

^[56] Griffin, A. (2024b, June 7). Conservatives halt digital ad campaigns for election after daily spend plunged. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/conservative-facebook-meta-labour-rishi-sunak-b2558586.html

^[57] Ibid

^[58] Ibid

 

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