How Platforms Fail Democracy
6th February 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM GMT
This event is organised and hosted by the School of Political Science.
“Platforms fail democracy. They fail in countries with comparatively stable governments and free and fair elections. They fail in states where leaders try to hold onto power even when they are voted out. This talk argues how and why they must do better. As democratic backsliding takes root around the world, I argue that technology companies must serve as democratic gatekeepers and adopt “democracy-worthy” platform policies. I outline how platforms should understand democratic threats and prevent the manipulation of their technologies by antidemocratic forces. I show how autocrats and autocratizing forces in countries ranging from Brazil, Hungary, India, and Turkey to the United States weaponize expression and social media to undermine or rollback elections and democratic institutions. I argue that this happens according to a well-established playbook that we have seen time and again. Leaders in these countries, rather consistently and routinely, delegitimize electoral processes and encourage or incite political violence. They conduct disinformation campaigns that spread harmful conspiracy theories and silence and harass the political opposition. They justify power grabs through strongman appeals to safety and security. And, these autocrats mobilize dominant groups through fear against racial, ethnic, religious, or other minority group ‘others.’
As this talk shows, this is a well-established playbook. That very consistency means that guardians of democracy – including platforms – can and must effectively counter these campaigns. I argue that platforms should adopt democracy-worthy policies that elevate public over individual rights, put people over politicians, account for power, and draw a red line around election disinformation.”
Professor Daniel Kreiss
Daniel Kreiss is the Edgar Thomas Cato Distinguished Professor in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the faculty director, a principal researcher, and co-founder of the UNC Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life, a global leader in disinformation research. Kreiss is the author or co-author of five books and the co-editor of Media and January 6th (Oxford University Press, 2024). Kreiss’s last volume, a co-written textbook entitled Platforms, Power, and Politics: An Introduction to Political Communication in the Digital Age (Polity, 2024), has been translated into multiple languages and adopted in numerous courses in the U.S. and Europe. Kreiss co-edits the Oxford University Press book series Journalism and Political Communication Unbound and is an associate editor of the field-leading Political Communication journal. At the Hussman School, Kreiss is the director of the Political Communication Certificate. Kreiss is an affiliated fellow of the Information Society Project at Yale Law School and received a Ph.D. in Communication from Stanford University.
