Clinton Emails Dominate Conversations During 2016 Election

Lishayne King

In the past, American democracy has often been referenced with respect to the technological developments that define it. Examples of references that have been used to allude to the 2016 campaign include: the Snapchat election, the meme election, or the Facebook election. Curiously, however, the current campaign has been identified not by modern or advanced technology. Rather, the current election season has been described by much older technology, e-mail.

Recurring conversations have focused on Hillary Clinton’s e-mails and the vulnerabilities and dangers that e-mail poses. While e-mail allows for a centralized station for communication, it also provides a false sense of security, failing to remind us that an e-mail can “[reside] on every device that every recipient ever downloaded it on.” Given the many people in different locations that may be involved in a campaign, the convenience of e-mail becomes apparent. Had the Clinton campaign utilized a more current form of technology, such as Slack or Signal, its private communications may not have been as susceptible to seizure.

However, efficiency and security may have better served the Clinton campaign through face-to-face meetings.

Source: Farhad Manjoo, Whoever Wins the White House, This Year’s Big Loser Is Email, New York Times (Oct. 19, 2016), http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/20/technology/whoever-wins-the-white-house-this-years-big-loser-is-email.html?_r=0.