Member-only story
Cadwalladr at TED — a dangerous message, not truth to power
Has social media destroyed democracy? Has it removed the possibility of any future, informed democratic vote as Cadwalldr claims?
No, and it is dangerous to make this claim.
I’m not saying that no crimes were committed by the brexit campaigns and others — this has been already proven. But the claims made about the level of influence of these campaigns, and any direct evidentiary link between the campaigns and actual votes is being exaggerated. It cannot be used to invalidate the vote, and it is wrong to put the blame onto the new media.
Similar claims were made throughout history as the ordinary common people got access to new media, from moveable type and the first mass publication (even internationally) of political pamphlets, to the invention of radio.
What we saw is the exploitation of the new media, this is true, and this was enabled because of the monopolies that have been created, in precisely the same way monopolies ruled and continue to rule all mass media and internet access in the US and elsewhere in the world. Far more people were reached and probably influenced by mass media coverage than online, and a lot of the time this coverage was delivered directly into the homes of the target voters at no cost to the end user.
