This article establishes a theoretical link between the business model of social media and the resurgence of antiliberal populism. Through a novel set of tactics I term “identity biopolitics,” political campaigns and foreign governments alike can identify voters as members of socioculturally differentiated populations, then target them with political messages aimed at cultivating voters’ awareness of their particular disadvantage within the prevailing liberal order. Identity biopolitics exploits a positive feedback loop between targeting and content: the sociocultural differentiations liberalism declares politically irrelevant are used to target content that cultivates awareness of subjects’ particular depoliticized disadvantage within the prevailing liberal order. The antiliberal populist exploits this condition to drive support for their political program. This article presents case studies of the Internet Research Agency and Cambridge Analytica during the 2016 general election in the United States to demonstrate the symbiosis between social media and antiliberal populism.

本文建立了社交媒体商业模式与反自由民粹主义复兴之间的理论联系。通过一套我称之为“身份生命政治”的新策略，政治运动和外国政府都可以将选民识别为社会文化差异化人群的成员，然后以政治信息为目标，旨在培养选民对他们在现行自由秩序中的特殊劣势的认识. 身份生命政治利用目标和内容之间的正反馈循环：自由主义宣称与政治无关的社会文化差异被用于目标内容，这些内容培养了人们对主流自由秩序中主体特定非政治化劣势的认识。反自由民粹主义者利用这种情况来推动对其政治纲领的支持。本文介绍了互联网研究机构和剑桥分析公司在 2016 年美国大选期间的案例研究，以展示社交媒体与反自由民粹主义之间的共生关系。