The birth of identity biopolitics: How social media serves antiliberal populism

Abstract

This article establishes a theoretical link between the business model of social media and the resurgence of antiliberal populism. Through a novel set of tactics I term “identity biopolitics,” political campaigns and foreign governments alike can identify voters as members of socioculturally differentiated populations, then target them with political messages aimed at cultivating voters’ awareness of their particular disadvantage within the prevailing liberal order. Identity biopolitics exploits a positive feedback loop between targeting and content: the sociocultural differentiations liberalism declares politically irrelevant are used to target content that cultivates awareness of subjects’ particular depoliticized disadvantage within the prevailing liberal order. The antiliberal populist exploits this condition to drive support for their political program. This article presents case studies of the Internet Research Agency and Cambridge Analytica during the 2016 general election in the United States to demonstrate the symbiosis between social media and antiliberal populism.