Social media has become a tool in everyday life for most people. Used as a news source, to keep track of politicians’ opinions on Twitter, or for mobilization, social media serves a multitude of functions for those wanting to be politically engaged. With the ability to garner a large audience and attention, social media has been used as a political resource to impact elections, influence social movements, and serve, or harm, democracy.
Benefits
Social media can be an excellent and accessible tool globally. The utilization of social media to expand and mobilize social movements and protests is the best example of this. Images of protests in Hong Kong were spread on social media, allowing “activists from around the world to actively learn from each other and exchange tactical tips.” Protesters in Portland, Oregon began to mimic the tactics used in Hong Kong and were effective in their own efforts based on what they saw on social media.
Elections have experienced the effects of social media. Candidates have used various sites and apps to influence and impact their positions in the polls. Steven Levitsky highlighted former U.S. President Donald Trump’s strategy of using social media in How Democracies Die. Trump maximized his benefits from social media by creating controversy and gaining press coverage through his popular tweets on Twitter. The attention gained from his tweeting outbursts and outlandish comments worked in Trump’s favor, as his social media following grew and he secured the victory in the 2016 election.
Another beneficial aspect of social media is its ability to spark outrage and incite change within the people, affecting the democratic state of a country. In Egypt, a Facebook page was created by human rights activists after Khaled Said was brutally murdered by Egyptian police. The Facebook page created a community that allowed users to bond over their rage for the Mubarak government, and was the most pressing factor in inciting revolts, and the eventual overthrow of Mubarak, in Egypt. Because of social media and its ability to spread information quickly, it is incredibly important to activists, who play a role in changing the course of democracy.
Drawbacks
While social media can serve as a beneficial tool, it also has harmful side effects that can contribute to the deterioration of a democracy. The spread of misinformation is a digital crisis as the misinformation spreads quickly and widely. Facebook is one of the biggest perpetrators of misinformation online, as they have allowed “diffusion of misinformation, disinformation and toxicity.” These oversights by social media outlets are harmful for a user on a personal scale, and also on a global scale. Regimes are able to control and censor the internet. In Tunisia, misinformation on social media platforms, like Facebook, are used by local and foreign groups to impact the erosion of democracy. Human rights actvisits are protrayed as terrorism advocates, and social media has been used by foreign actors to interfere in politics.
Facebook also aids in the demise of democracy as users on the site have significantly contributed or influenced political change in Myanmar, India, and the U.S. with the magnification of the far right’s influence. An example of this would be the role Facebook played in ignoring signs from the Stop the Steal group that facilitated the January 6 Capitol riots. Social media outlets should be held to a standard of responsibility for monitoring and filtering extremist groups and similar rhetoric instead of continuing to ignore the situation until it’s too late.
Algorithms used by social media outlets are also able to study the patterns of users. By collecting data and using machine learning, users have curated content and ads that align with what they search for or consume. This is an effort to increase engagement with the site. However, while the user may see benefits because everything they see on social media is of their interests, the lack of diversity feeds into their confirmation bias. The content that is shown by the algorithm only furthers and confirms what the user is already looking for and increases polarization and radicalization.
Governments can also use social media to their advantage to stop the rise of democracy. In Iran, social media, especially Twitter, is used as a technology warfare tactic against domestic rivals. Instead of using social media for good, Iran has turned it into a weapon that ends the democracy movement. Fake accounts, trolls, and reporting rules violations are all tactics used by Tehran — and they’ve been successful in demeaning opposers. While Facebook and other social media outlets know of Iran’s strategy, none have made an effort to end this online warfare.
Looking Ahead
Social media companies need to be working alongside international governments to sensor and tackle misinformation more diligently. A lack of technology ethics is a major factor in developing harmful effects of social media. Legislation and regulation for online communities, like on Reddit, or giving people more control of their personal data, are effective ways to start. By reforming the growing world of social media, users can become more literate with technology and politics, as misinformation will occur far less often and a proper monitoring system will be implemented.
The Platform Accountability and Transparency Act (PATA) is a bipartisan bill announced this past week that, if passed, would require social media companies to “provide vetted, independent researchers and the public with access to certain platform data.” While this bill is not a comprehensive solution to the dangers to democracy caused by social media, it is a step in the right direction. Democracies that wish to succeed and avoid backsliding or erosion need to seek reform on a legislative level. As social media and its influence rapidly grow, a failure to take urgent action will be costly for many countries and, in some cases, the citizens will feel the devastating effects more.
*Photo by Dole777 (Unsplash), Creative Commons Zero license.
This is such an interesting topic, and you are correct in examining both the positive and negative effects of social media. I think one benefit to social media is indirectly used in your post is that movements can reach an audience outside one’s country, especially if the mainstream media does not cover it. Which can work to movements favor but the consequences of social media seem to have a greater impact than the benefits. Misinformation is such a harmful problem in democracies today and like is mentioned in the post the algorithms seem to play a role in what a person consumes on the platform. I am curious if the fact-checkers that have been put in place by companies such as Facebook have made an impact on people’s confirmation bias? From what I have seen in my personal life it does not lessen people’s belief in the wrong information as long as it aligns with their personal beliefs.
Blog Comment 4
https://democratic-erosion.org/2021/12/09/the-role-of-social-media-in-democracy/
Andrea,
This is a great post and after reading it I loved how much detail you put into it. I also really like how you broke this post up and did not just focus on the negative or positives, you showed both sides of how it can be good and bad.
I was so happy to see the positive and negatives about this topic since usually people only target one side. I do agree with you that social media is globally known information which I think, it can be amazing that news can spread that fast. If the actual news is not covering the story, it is nice that we have social media to spread it. In certain circumstances it can be beneficial but also can negatively impact the story as well.
Misinformation is such a big problem now a days which we have seen with the spread of covid, presidential elections, and many laws that are coming into place. It can be harmful since social media uses algorithms to put certain information on people’s pages.
Look at Facebook for example, I do hope they look more in detail at their fact checking. As social media technology is constantly changing, we need to make sure the information is correct and social media is not spreading misinformation.
I completely agree with you that social media has a massive effect on the political sphere, both negative and positive. Its use to help form social movements such as BLM is a great way in which social media can better sever our democracy. Unfortunately, I think when it comes to maintaining democracy, social media is doing more harm than good. As you explain in your drawbacks section, misinformation is rampant on all social media platforms. When it came to things like Covid-19 and the US 2020 presidential election, the misinformation being spread around different social media platforms had a major effect on the country’s response to these events. When our political leaders utilize these platforms to help spread this misinformation, it only further aids the democratic backsliding of the nation. I agree with you that these platforms need to be held responsible for the information they are letting people post. Widespread misinformation has led to people losing their lives in the case of the pandemic, and when people are being fed lies on the internet regarding politicians and other policies, it can be extremely harmful to democracies. When our political leaders have the ability to manipulate and distort information, it only gives them more power over the people which ultimately undermines the foundations of the liberal democracy. Also as you mentioned, the algorithms used on these platforms only further the polarization of nations, especially in the US, and this polarization can be extremely harmful to democracies. Political parties will do everything in their power to pass their legislation and block the power of their opponents. This can lead to them trying to go outside of democratic means to get what they want. Overall, I feel social media is only furthering the pattern of democratic erosion around the world.
Hi, Andrea!
You did a great job. You explained the pros and cons of social media very well in the context of democracy. I was glad to know that social media could be a tool to enhance democracy. Most people use social media for fun and entertainment. However, I have realized after reading your blog that social media allows us to share information and keep people informed about politics and what is happening in the world. In our country’s case, Myanmar, we used social media to raise our voice to the world, protesting the military coup. It is a good fact that information can quickly reach a wide audience, almost all over the world. At the same time, misinformation can be spread through social media. In the past, the Myanmar military (Min Aung Hlaing) used social media (Facebook) to spread propaganda regarding the genocide of the Rohingya minority. It rallied the Buddhist majority in Myanmar to destroy the Muslim minority. Therefore, it needed to be controlled by promoting advocacy or training about fake news or misinformation.
From my perspective, in terms of another negative effect, polarization might emerge in terms of politics, as social media can strengthen people’s beliefs and exclude them from an existing society. I think it mostly happened during the election campaigns when the political parties used social media in terms of political persuasion.
Finally, I agree with you that proper monitoring must be implemented to distinguish fake news from misinformation.
Thank you.
Thein Dollar