Regulation of electoral campaign on social media (modern practice of foreign countries)

Abstract

Social media continues to increase its popularity of use and influence on the political landscape. At the same time, the legislative regulation of their application is an urgent problem for legal political science. This especially applies to election processes.
Also, the review makes it possible to trace the next aspects at the state level: definitions of the concepts of social media or networks, identification of campaign content on the Internet, identification of political advertising and its labeling, etc.
The conducted analysis showed that in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Costa Rica, Mauritius, Monaco, Seychelles, Finland, Sweden, there are no separate laws or articles regulating campaigning on social media during the pre-election period. And in such countries as Honduras, Ecuador, Iceland, Canada, Cyprus, Latvia, the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, Slovakia, Hungary, France, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Chile, Montenegro there is no mention of where social media would be used for campaigning. However, it is considered that existing articles of current laws apply to such cases. So, in general, the studied countries (more than 30) regarding the regulation of pre-election campaigning in social media can be conditionally divided into three groups: 1) those that have relevant norms in laws or by-laws; 2) there is no legal regulation; 3) there is no mention of social media, but it is believed to be regulated by current state legislation.
Further research may concern Ukraine and foreign countries, the legislation of which was not analyzed in this article, as well as the application of legal norms regarding campaigning in social media in practice. Similarly, in the future, it is appropriate to consider the various definitions of concepts ("online platform", "social media", etc.) in different countries, distinguishing common and different components during comparison.