“Users can talk to people from outside their political bubbles”

Waaromkiesjij.nl

Everyone recognises that political opinion varies, but it can be hard to debate with someone whose views are at odds with your own. That was certainly what Ruben found in the run-up to the Dutch election of 2017. "Talking to a few friends, we came to the conclusion that we were stuck in our own bubbles and unable to step outside them. So we thought it would be good to develop something that enabled people to interact with others who held strongly contrasting views. That led to the creation of waaromkiesjij.nl: a platform designed to address public concerns about polarisation, which attracted a lot of media attention. It was used by people from right across the political spectrum."

Platform relaunch

After the 2017 election campaign, the project was dormant until the 2021 election drew closer. "We already had the concept and a track record, which we then used to come back bigger and better," says Ruben. "That was made possible by assistance from SIDN Fund and the Ministry of the Interior, and by a partnership with the team behind the StemWijzer voter support tool. The Fund and the Ministry gave us the financial scope to develop better applications, while StemWijzer users who said they wanted to engage in debate were referred directly to waaromkiesjij.nl. There, they were paired with chat partners with opposing views for low-threshold discussions."

Respectful and constructive chats

"By popping bubbles and returning public debate to the citizen level, we want to promote mutual understanding and help people develop better informed views," adds Ruben. "The platform attracted more than 330,000 visitors within a month, and we received lots of positive feedback. Users reported being able to have respectful and constructive chats with other people, despite having opposing political allegiances. We saw that as very encouraging, because in social media and in debates, people often just try to shout each other down. Our next step was to commission an independent academic study, which concluded that even brief online chats increased sympathy for people with contrasting opinions. The aim isn't to get everyone to agree with each other, but to encourage debate and help us all to see where people outside our bubbles are coming from."

Bubbel Chat app

"The Bubbel Chat app has now gone live as well," Ruben continues. "The app complements the platform: the platform pairs people with chat partners on the basis of their political views, then they use the app to actually chat. The original concept involved people being paired live and then having a synchronous debate, which meant both people being online at the same time. By contrast, the new app is more like a political speed-dating app, which lets you interact with multiple other voters over an extended period of time. You can respond to a chat partner's message whenever you like. That makes debate a lot more straightforward because, for example, you can talk issues through properly."

Support from SIDN Fund

"When the 2021 election was coming up, we got a grant from SIDN Fund. That helped us kickstart the project, and we've been going strong ever since. What I like about SIDN Fund is that they act not only as a financier, but also as a partner. So they back up their financial support by helping us to become self-sufficient. The knowledge sessions, networking opportunities and exposure have been incredibly useful."

Elise van Schaik, Project Coordinator at SIDN Fund: "The internet and social media often feed polarisation and the dissemination of negative messages. Fortunately, waaromkiesjij.nl and the Bubbel Chat app show that the internet can also help people with different opinions to talk to each other and learn from each other. Here at SIDN Fund, it gives us great satisfaction to see how Civinc has grown in the last few years, getting so many people with such contrasting views debating topical themes together."

Education

"Our ambitions go beyond politics," says Ruben. "We're currently running another project enabled by SIDN Fund and Utrecht University, which is aimed at transferring the voter app to the education sector. We've developed a tool that puts students with contrasting views in contact with each other. More than 1,000 students will be using it in 2024. It's designed to enable the students to see each other's perspectives, to make difficult topics discussable, and to give users an insight into how others think and feel."

Want to step outside your bubble in the run-up to the election? Visit waaromkiesjij.nl.

The team behind Waaromkiesjij.nl and the Bubble Chat app.