New technologies have always shaped politics – but digital is bigger, faster and unpredictable.
Digital tech has a dark side: misinformation, social media trolls, bots and dark patterns.
And the light: understanding people, engaging with them and inspiring positive change.
We have shown how applying digital tech, data and targeting platforms can help political candidates in the most complex settings.
The 2019 Thailand general election took place under a military regime with authoritarian rules and non-transparent processes. Our technology work helped a political newcomer gather inaccessible constituency data, refine its political sentiment map and coordinate campaign operations effectively.
Our digital strategy at the 2019 Hong Kong local elections resulted in a landslide victory. Our focus in Hong Kong revolved around digital platforms and communication.
As part of our research with the German government party think tank, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, we found that despite positive economic growth and a push towards digitalization, many businesses in Cambodia still lack management buy-in to implement A.I.- and data-driven technologies compared to its Southeast Asian neighbours, as well as require more technical talent and primary data.
Commissioned by an international human rights body, we uncovered the effects of misinformation and manipulation on public attitudes and knowledge about social and political issues.
Our results showed that formal education about such matters, rather than family, friends or the internet, is crucial in making people more curious and capable to tell opinion and fact apart.
Political data science
Together with the KAS foundation and a team of researchers we produced extensive analysis and proposals on the technical, social and legal aspects of implementing e-governance services in a developing country. Particular focus by our team was data-driven applications and digital security.
Do all new A.I. services need to be audited? How can A.I.-based applications used by malicious actors be transformed for good purposes? Can digital systems that drive big profits be adapted to support the public sector? Can a heartless robot be reprogrammed to simulate the moral judgment of individual human beings?
The amount of A.I.-related ethics and policy questions is growing as fast as the number of A.I.-driven startup ideas. Worldacquire contributes to the discussion by providing technical expertise, auditing programs and analysing the impact of technology and tech policies.
Tech & A.I. policy
We especially address areas of concern such as algorithmic bias, political manipulation, privacy and surveillance.
Get in touch
Make an enquiry if you would like to discuss how we could work together, contribute to your research or help you get trained in any of our areas.
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