Meet Gabriela, a fictional character created to explore the influence of social media on voters. In her forties and Latina, Gabriela resides in Miami. While she’s not particularly interested in politics, she is concerned about the economy and abortion rights. With election day approaching, she remains undecided about her vote.
Gabriela is part of an ongoing experiment for the BBC’s Americast podcast, focusing on how social media algorithms may shape voter behavior.
To create Gabriela as an undercover voter, I set up profiles on major social media platforms: X, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Her accounts were kept private, and she followed non-political content such as coupon pages and dance videos. All five characters in this study have no friends or public interactions.
While these profiles cannot fully represent every voter’s experience online, they offer valuable insights into how social media impacts elections.
“Gabriela began by expressing no interest in politics at all on her social media feeds.”
Over time, her feed began to shift as I engaged with various types of content. Suddenly, political posts started appearing alongside her usual interests.
Within Gabriela’s feeds on different platforms, a political war emerged between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. On X, Trump’s content dominated her feed, driven by active supporters who garnered tens of millions of views. For example:
“Seems accurate,” read a popular meme juxtaposing Trump’s campaign images with maps showing states turning red for the Republicans.
In contrast, Gabriela’s TikTok features montages of Kamala Harris speaking at rallies. One video from Latinos for Harris boldly states: “America is ready for Kamala Harris,” highlighting her personal appeal rather than policies.
Despite TikTok’s ban on political ads, YouTube has targeted Gabriela with numerous campaign adverts focused primarily on the economy—such as Harris promising to “cut taxes for 100 million working Americans.”
Through this experiment, it has become clear that algorithms prioritize engagement over neutrality. As a result, Gabriela’s once apolitical feeds are now saturated with political content tailored to influence her voting decision based on which platform she engages with most.
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