ABSTRACT
The political electoral process is tumultuous in many countries around the world; it is sometimes characterized by violence and is most often laden with ideological conflict and divisiveness. This chapter examines the role of social media warfare tactics and their use in the political electoral process in 2016 in the United States. There are three major types of blunders that fire up the social media world. Factual errors made by candidates, poor behavior on the part of a candidate including making racist or fascist statements, and the amateurish use of social media by a candidate. Gaining supporters and voters is the goal of any electoral campaign. Supporters can use social media warfare tactics to help grow supporter bases by recruiting and indoctrinating friends, relatives, coworkers, or neighbors into supporting a candidate. A monitoring and measurement process can help campaigns track the results of social media warfare efforts. There are two major categories of measurement: hard and soft data.
