posted in Technology
Social media harms democracy by spreading rumors, survey shows
www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/social-media-harms-democracy-by-spreading-rumors-survey-shows-2026-10-01/
Replying to @Mustachius_Grumpius@thelemmy.club
They also spread the truth as well even when government and media have conspired to obscure it. Social media has led to people beating companies, governments and politicians simply by providing an avenue to share reality. Social media defends democracy and protects democracy. There has always been an enormous power balance issues between the elites and the peasants and social media for the first time is allowing the peasants to speak to each other rather than the only voice being the elites through their media platforms.
My guy… Social media ARE the elites media platforms you Dingus.
They aren’t letting people do shit, they are all censored and monitored to ensure we stay fractured and disengaged
Replying to @TheJesusaurus@piefed.ca
He seems stuck at what social media was in 2012 and hasn’t realized how they are now.
Replying to @tehBishop@sh.itjust.works
Twitter = Arab Spring because it lets them use cheap SMS flipphones!
Replying to @yucandu@lemmy.world
Now that Saudi Arabia basically owns Twitter that will never happen again. Not to mention when they hacked in ~10 years ago to get data on dissidents.
Replying to @tehBishop@sh.itjust.works
Yet in principle the benefit described (amplifying voices of the unheard) isn’t entirely out of reach for social media as a category, especially if we can escape the era of closed platforms and billionaires.
Replying to @tehBishop@sh.itjust.works
Yet in principle the social benefit described (amplifying voices of the unheard) isn’t entirely out of reach for social media as a category, especially if we can escape the era of closed platforms. Open alternatives are still relatively new. There is a plausible future in which closed platforms are left behind and we become much more capable of keeping mass public manipulation in check.
Replying to @Septimaeus@infosec.pub
Exactly but I think for most people social media = the ones used by the masses, the “social normiedia”, like Facebook and Twitter.