Platform speech: Journalists and political campaigners reflect on Facebook and disintermediation in three UK general elections

Abstract

Through interviews with top-level British political journalists and communications strategists, this article explores the use of Facebook as a campaign tool in the UK General Elections of 2015, 2017, and 2019. Findings demonstrate increasing sophistication in political actors’ use of Facebook as a disintermediation device, bypassing the media to speak directly to voters. However, both sets of interviewees also expressed concern about the effects of removing political gatekeepers on the verification of information and accountability of information providers.