By Yannis Armeytis
Architect and President of the Andreas Armeytis Foundation for the Study of Democracy
It is a fact that in recent decades, many of us have considered democracy an acquisition that cannot be questioned, at least in the Western world. We believed that any disagreements were expressed within a specific framework, at the core of which were the values of equality, freedom and respect for diversity.
This belief was overturned when attitudes that challenged the value of democracy and movements that used undemocratic means to impose their views began to emerge. Such phenomena did not only appear in the form of extremist movements, which, in the guise of religious or other concepts, targeted what we understand as a democratic and free way of life. Instead, they emerged within Western societies, with the revival of extreme right-wing and neo-Nazi movements, which we thought we had got rid of in the previous century. These extreme voices, despite their disparate origins, found a channel of communication that allowed them to form a movement.
The role of the Social Media has been crucial in this process. Their very nature, which allows us to connect with persons unknown to us and exchange views with them, seems to have acted as the ground on which such phenomena developed and continue to develop. The invasion of the US Capitol early last year was the sad culmination of the ill-conceived influence of Social Media on the functioning of democracy in peacetime. What is playing out on social media today, during the invasion of Ukraine, is also a stark demonstration of the role it can play. The spread of fake news, the fanaticism of some users, the 'footballing' of the issue and the creation of online communities whose members assure themselves of the correctness of their views can only be a cause for concern. Much analysis has been done on whether the problem lies in the platforms themselves, or in the messages and hence their authors. Just as many attempts have been made to identify the attempt to exploit users' data through the platforms, as in the case of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
On the other hand, any discussion of this issue cannot overlook the many positive effects of social media on the functioning or evolution of democracy. Such as, for example, the immediacy of communication, the interaction between individuals and the exchange of views. We should not overlook their contribution to the defence of rights, the manifestation of social movements, such as "me too", "black lives matters", or to refer to more familiar issues, even the exposure of scandals, the protection of animals and the creation of awareness on several social issues.
Essentially, as social media create a decentralized information network, the more difficult it becomes for a central authority to control the flow of information to the public.
Essentially, the more social media create a decentralized information network, the more difficult it becomes for a central authority to control the flow of information to the public. What probably needs to be considered is whether and under what conditions social media can be transformed from a useful tool for defending democracy into a weapon against it. Part of the solution could be to establish a legislative framework for their operation, protecting users both from the spread of false news, or extremist views, and from the exploitation of their data by the companies themselves in an unintended way.
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