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The purpose of the paper is to reflect on the conditions of referenda as an EU input legitimacy, on the era of social media microtargeting campaigns. Taking the case of Brexit as an example, it takes conclusions for the democracy as an inherent value of the EU multilevel polity and opens prospects for possible solutions.

The paper is interdisciplinary based, complementing political science approaches on EU democratic legitimacy and communication studies on social media and political communication. These are the theoretical frameworks for analysing the case of Brexit referendum campaign, which is based on an empirical tracing of strategies and contents used. This empirical assessment is supported by official reports of the House of Commons and of the UK Information Commissioner’s Office and media news on the case. Analysis and discussion of it allows to come to conclusions.

Primary finding is that manipulation and disinformation occurred in Brexit campaign, creating a biased, fake and unbalanced information. Second main finding is that microtargeting and suppression of public debate enhances the typical polarisation of binary options on a referendum, and in the case of Brexit deepened the social cleavage that already shaped voter’s preferences, once information consumed by citizens functioned as “eco-chambers”, strengthening preconceptions. The ultimate conclusion in this case is a sign that social media can deepen the historical gap between elites and voters in the EU, with negative consequences for democracy and social legitimacy of the EU political system.

The almost impossible access to the digital microtargeted adverts used in campaigns, to allow a more detailed analysis of the EU content issued.

Conclusions of this research are useful for politicians and advisers of policy-making to reflect on the future of the political system of the EU in terms of democracy, and the Europe as a whole and think about measures to be taken either on the level of improving legitimacy processes or regulation of digital media.

If practical implications are taken from conclusions of this study, enhancing democratic processes, avoiding privacy data manipulation and providing accurate, impartial and trustworthy information to citizens public can be a social benefit achieved mainly through regulation.

Despite some studies have been released on Brexit referendum, they have mainly been single-disciplinary. This study innovates because it conciliates political science theoretical views with communications studies’ ones, to produce strengthened reasoning ground on the purposed of this research: to search evidence that new political communication strategies within the social media landscape can be of special negative influence in EU referenda and for the future of the multilevel polity.

This chapter theorizes a proposal for applying the study of Brexit as a pedagogical strategy in an European Studies (ES) bachelor program, as a means to activate theoretical knowledge for different disciplinary and thematic fields of study about the European Union. The proposal uses the problem-based learning (PBL) approach as a pedagogical methodology and the bachelor of ES at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Coimbra as a case study to rehearse teaching innovation. It is based on a theoretical part, conciliating PBL as a pedagogical tool in social sciences and humanities with the exceptionalism of Brexit within the European integration theories and the study of European policies to activate and question prior scientific knowledge, and on a survey to bachelor’s students and alumni on the pertinence of PBL and of Brexit as an empirical element for scientific knowledge in ES. As a result, specific proposals to use Brexit in PBL experiences in different disciplinary areas of ES are made, paving the way for a range of teaching and learning opportunities and challenges released by Brexit to make progress in the ES pedagogical framework.

“Teaching the European Union” is a term as elusive as the notions of “EU Studies” or “European Studies,” both discussed and debated by generations of scholars and practitioners. The case of the EU, and of the art of teaching EU-related content, is one of the most striking examples, where the emphasis on values and principles cannot be passed by indifferently. What is being taught and how it is being taught have a direct impact on the trajectory of the European integration process today and in the years to come. The objective of this introductory chapter is to offer a brief insight into the book’s context and the book’s relevance. Against this backdrop this volume’s content is outlined. A few points for the readers to consider follow.