Is social media good or bad for democracy?
In a world where social media is as prominent as ever and in a busy world where politics is the height of many debates and opinions where those of us who are lucky enough to live in a democratic country can experience, we must ask ourselves is the effect of social media on democracy a positive or negative one?
Social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter can connect people from around the world for free. One can instantly share posts which can be seen by people from all around the world in a matter of seconds. Like minded people who have similar opinions will talk to one another and view the same posts meaning that people find themselves in bubbles of interest, for this reason social media is making your online networks more diverse which has a positive effect on democracy because of the diversity of points and opinions that are accessible online. Social media can also have a positive impact because of the political movements and the movements for change like the Me Too movement which was first used on social media platforms in 2006 and has brought about change on the behalf of those who have suffered sexual assault or harassment.
However social media can have a negative effect on democracy because of fake news. Fake news poses a problem for democracy because you may believe things which are false or not believe things that are true which disrupts the democratic process as those with specific interests seek to promote their interests rather than what is true. These such people may share the fake news stories deliberately so that hate and dislike for a particular party or movement increases.
The idea of sharing ideas from across the globe could be detrimental for democracy because of the Russian bot theory. This means that when online and sharing opinions about the events in your country, people from other countries can of course chip in. The problem with this is that these people may seem to be from the same country as you when they are not. Although this could be harmless it may also suggest that other countries are getting involved and are siding with one movement or party more than the others. An example of this is the 2016 election victory of US president Donald Trump, many think that it was possible that Russia tipped the electoral scales in order to get Trump to win or that he partnered with Russia to achieve the result that he wanted. Although these theories are possible Trump has dismissed these claims calling it a ‘Made up story’. After two years a 450-page report was filed but the special counsel found no evidence that the campaign conspired with Russia. However, Mr Mueller (who was a former head of the FBI) investigated and concluded that the Russians did interfere in the election.
In spite of this it was the Russian government who supposedly got involved in the election and not the people, so therefore this situation was probably not down to social media entirely and more down to the Russian government and however they interfered with the election, if they did at all. It is of course feasible that the allegations may have been fake news, social media may have not wholly influenced these allegations but it certainly wouldn’t have helped the issue, anti-Trump supporters would have lapped up these claims and would have wanted the news spread similarly Trumps supporters would have wanted to dismiss these claims. In this instance it would have been the Russians who defied democracy by them getting involved in the election results.
This has outlined how social media is good and bad for democracy. In conclusion social media is neither good nor bad for democracy, sure there are some downsides such as fake news and the Russian bot theory. There are also benefits of social medias effect on democracy such as online diversity and the creation of new political/change movements.
The public should not believe everything they see online and should stop before getting so heavily involved in other countries politics.