There is no doubt that social media has radically changed journalism over the past few years. Traditional media outlets are joining TikTok, Instagram, and the like in record numbers to avoid losing ground to modern content creators. While social media journalism might make information more accessible and democratic than ever before, it is also making us increasingly dependent on the few platforms that control the internet – with dangerous consequences.

Many people – especially the younger generation – already rely on social media as their main news source today.

Elsewhere, this hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Countries like Russia, China, and even Israel are trying to shift public opinion by exploiting social bots, influencers, and generative AI. They have understood one important truth: information is power. And whoever controls information can control narratives, set agendas, and even influence elections.

A recent example is the presidential election in Romania, where a massive TikTok campaign orchestrated by Russia led to the win of pro-Russian candidate Călin Georgescu. The election was later annulled by Romania’s Constitutional Court, citing foreign interference.

Misinformation and disinformation on social media have eroded the factual base for healthy discourse, rhetoric has become more hateful, and society has drifted apart.

But how do we prevent this from happening?

To many, the answer is increased moderation and censorship on social media platforms. But this could pose yet another threat to free speech and democracy. Should we really let social media companies, and perhaps even worse, governments, decide which content to censor, favour or hide? After all, they, too, could be the very malicious actors we are trying to fight.

Social media companies and billionaires

Social media companies’ primary focus isn’t to promote democracy – it’s to serve their own interests. This could be making money, pleasing their shareholders and owners, or even accounting to the Chinese government.

Even though TikTok has vehemently denied allegations that it is associated with the Chinese government (CCP), many investigations have found overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

And even American companies like Meta have worked ‘hand in glove’ with the CCP, exploring possible censorship and disregarding the very moral standards they publicly uphold, according to a recent BBC interview with a former Facebook senior executive.

Social media companies’ interests don’t align with the interests of democracy. In many ways, they even go directly against it.

Instagram, TikTok, and X benefit from fake news, clickbait, and polarising content. Extremist content generates more exposure, keeps people engaged, and, in return, increases profits.

Algorithms create echo chambers because they are trying to keep users engaged – not to promote diversity of thought.

Adding to this is the worrying trend of powerful individuals obtaining more and more control over our media. X is now owned by Elon Musk, The Washington Post by Jeff Bezos and Meta is shaped significantly by Mark Zuckerberg.

So perhaps social media companies shouldn’t be in charge of which information to keep and which to censor.

Governments

The alternative is to let governments make those decisions, which is a trend we now see in the EU.

The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) aims to regulate social media by forcing large platforms to remove ‘hate speech’ and ‘misinformation’. But this has also sparked criticism for granting too much power to the government, which authorities could potentially abuse.

There are plenty of examples in recent years of governments abusing their power to silence critics, manipulate the public, and spy on people – all in the name of protecting democracy. The most famous example is perhaps the NSA scandal of 2013.

All this means we must be extremely cautious when granting authorities more power to avoid a slippery slope that could endanger our democracy.

The bottom line

Of course, reality is not all doom and gloom.

Social media also gives power over information back to the people, allows for unfiltered and real-time information, and provides many other advantages to journalism and democracy as a whole.

But nonetheless, we should be aware of the enormous power social media holds and that – if controlled by the wrong people – it could pose a significant threat to democracy.

Text: Jan Rehaag
Photo: marcoventuriniautieri via Canva