The digitalization of first generation human rights: Global social media's impact on the individual as a subject of international law

The thesis addresses the issue of how global social media has affected the individual's first generation human rights. In the context of the 21st century, in an international environment influenced by the neoliberal paradigm and the phenomenon of globalization, social media has become an area of interest due to its capacity to enhance awareness of the individual's political rights in liberal democracies. While several studies have covered the changes that society has gone through due to the rise of social media, the issue of how these changes affected the individual as an international actor has not been systematically addressed. This thesis sets out to do so by examining the individual's status within international law.;In particular, this thesis addresses how global social media has affected the individual's ability to exercise their first generation rights, with an emphasis on the right to vote. The individual's right to vote has been both facilitated and hindered by global social media, as proven by the American presidential elections of 2008 and the Dutch general elections of 2010. The key variable which affects the individual's right to vote is represented by information. Particularly within social media, the individual is saturated by information which, according to how they perceive it, it can affect their right to vote. The thesis identifies, describes and examines how global social media impacts the individual's voting choice and therefore, how the right to vote, as part of the negative set of human rights, is exercised under the influence of global social media.