Digital Technologies and Democracy

How has digital technology - from social media to algorithmic targeting - shaped democratic outcomes?

In this opening event, artist and human rights researcher Caroline Sinders is joined by educator and researcher David Carroll and journalist, artist and filmmaker Kari Paul to examine the intended and unintended consequences of digital campaigning and the role of technology in global elections.

During the 2016 Brexit Referendum, the Cambridge Analytica scandal exposed the use of harvested data and algorithmic profiling to influence voter behaviour. A decade on, data-driven campaigning plays an even greater role in democracies worldwide.

Paul has worked in journalism for over ten years, covering platform power and digital culture for outlets including The Guardian, BBC, and VICE. Her work examines surveillance capitalism and personal data vulnerability. After a career in commercial digital media, Carroll moved into academia and later brought a landmark legal challenge against Cambridge Analytica in the UK over mass data abuse linked to the 2016 US Presidential Election.

Using 2016 as a case study, the conversation explores the growing entanglement of democracy and technology, and what it means for our political future.

This is the first event in a three-part series. To book on to future events, please follow the links below:

Episode 2 -  The Politics of Emotion | Thursday 5 March 2026, 19:00 GMT
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Episode 3 - Regulating the Digital Sphere | Monday 9 March 2026, 19:00 GMT
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This three-part online series responds to The Last X Years, a digital project by Jay Bernard. Between 2021–2024, Bernard travelled across the UK, collecting reflections on the 2016 EU referendum. Combined with AI-selected historical headlines, these interviews formed an evolving broadcast, exploring the visible and invisible forces shaping our political and emotional lives.