Contested Data and the Catalan Independence Referendum

When Tacti­cal Tech’s Data and Poli­tics rese­arch team began to inves­ti­gate how perso­nal and indi­vi­dual data was being utili­sed in modern, digi­tally-enhan­ced poli­ti­cal campaigns, we were quickly struck by the unba­lan­ced cove­rage, parti­cu­larly in the media, of the methods and stra­te­gies of data acqui­si­tion, analy­sis and utili­sa­tion by poli­ti­cal campaigns across coun­tries and diffe­rent poli­ti­cal contexts.



In colla­bo­ra­tion with inter­na­ti­o­nal part­ners, we produ­ced 14 studies to iden­tify and examine some of the key aspects and trends in the use of data and digi­tal stra­te­gies in recent and/or upco­ming elec­ti­ons or refe­ren­dums in Argen­tina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colom­bia, France, Italy, India, Kenya, Malay­sia, Mexico, Spain – Cata­lo­nia, the United King­dom and the United States. By working with jour­na­lists, digi­tal rights advo­ca­tes, lawyers, acade­mics and data scien­tists, our multi­dis­ci­pli­nary and prac­ti­ti­o­ner-led appro­ach has produ­ced contex­tual over­vi­ews and tangi­ble case studies of how perso­nal and indi­vi­dual data is used by poli­ti­cal campaigns in coun­tries across the globe. With this collec­tion of reports, we aim to expand our unders­tan­ding of these issues beyond the contem­po­rary, global-north focu­sed cove­rage.

Read the analy­sis of the study dead­ling with the cata­lan inde­pen­dence forum here