US EditionSocial Media Can Support or Undermine Democracy. It Comes Down to How It's Designed
UNITED STATES, JUL 6 – Social media algorithms drive 64% of extremist group joins, enabling disinformation and political manipulation that weaken democratic norms worldwide, Nobel laureate Maria Ressa warns.
- Built on ad-driven models, social media platforms engineer algorithms that prioritize engagement and toxic content over democratic values.
- Internal research shows 64% of extremist group joins stem from recommendation algorithms, with QAnon and Stop the Steal campaigns leading to the January 6 insurrection.
- As a result, engagement-driven platform designs threaten mental health, polarize discourse, and erode citizens’ capacity for meaningful democratic debate.
- Future projections indicate that unregulated platform design choices and emerging techno-autocracy pose long-term threats to democracy, requiring a radical rethink of journalism and technology sectors.
13 Articles
13 Articles
Social media can support or undermine democracy
Every design choice that social media platforms make nudges users toward certain actions, values and emotional states. It is a design choice to offer a news feed that combines verified news sources with conspiracy blogs – interspersed with photos of a family picnic – with no distinction between these very different types of information. It is a design choice to use algorithms that find the most emotional or outrageous content to show users, hopi…
Professor Takami Sato of the Department of Journalism, Faculty of Letters, Sophia University calls today's society an "emotional society." In this society, rational dialogue tends to be put aside, and "pleasant" or "unpleasant" is more important than truth or falsity. Social networking sites (SNSs), which are equipped with algorithms that maximize appeal to emotions, are accelerating this trend.
The Conversation
Social media can support or undermine democracy – it comes down to how it’s designed
A protester calls out Facebook for facilitating the spread of disinformation. AP Photo/Jeff ChiuEvery design choice that social media platforms make nudges users toward certain actions, values and emotional states. It is a design choice to offer a news feed that combines verified news sources with conspiracy blogs – interspersed with photos of a family picnic – with no distinction between these very different types of information. It is a design…
As the impacts of climate change increase, polarization and disinformation threaten to weaken the democratic values necessary to confront it. Adapting our democracies to these challenges involves advancing the mechanisms of deliberative democracy. The search for the “best” political regime, capable of guaranteeing justice, collective well-being and achieving a prosperous society, was part of its origin in the thinking of Plato and Aristotle. One…
Social media can support or undermine democracy – it comes down to how it’s designed
Every design choice that social media platforms make nudges users toward certain actions, values and emotional states. It is a design choice to offer a news feed that combines verified news sources with conspiracy blogs – interspersed with photos of a family picnic – with no distinction between these very different types of information. It is a design choice to use algorithms that find the most emotional or outrageous content to show users, hopi…
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