Public awareness
Measuring how people understand political microtargeting, platform data practices and algorithmic delivery.
Completed academic and institutional work
Reclaiming autonomy from political microtargeting
An interdisciplinary €1.5 million research programme examined how transparent information architectures, cognitive support and regulation could rebalance human and algorithmic decision-making.
The research question
How can people reclaim autonomy when platforms know more about them than they know about the systems?
Political microtargeting combines extensive platform knowledge with limited user visibility into how data and algorithms shape the delivery of political messages. That asymmetry creates opportunities to exploit susceptibilities, biases and errors in ways that can affect individual autonomy and democratic discourse.
While at Leiden University’s eLaw centre, Dr Mark R. Leiser took part in the successful €1.5 million Volkswagen Foundation programme, Reclaiming individual autonomy and democratic discourse online: How to rebalance human and algorithmic decision making.
Contribution
The interdisciplinary programme connected Leiden University with the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, the University of Bristol and Northeastern University. The work examined public awareness and attitudes to political microtargeting, interventions against manipulative advertising, measures that could counter false information and the translation of empirical findings into regulation.
Status: completed in a personal academic capacity while at Leiden University. This was not a DigiData client engagement.Programme architecture
Evidence, intervention and regulatory translation.
The programme joined behavioural, legal, technological and design research rather than assuming that transparency alone would correct algorithmic influence.
Intervention design
Testing information architectures and cognitive supports intended to resist manipulation and serve users rather than advertisers.
Regulatory translation
Converting empirical findings into rules and institutional approaches capable of protecting autonomy and democratic discourse.
Related capability
Need independent research across law, technology and institutional design?
DigiData develops evidence-led research, expert reports and structured workshops for complex digital-regulation questions.