Negative Effects of Artificial Intelligence and Internet on Democracy

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Coinmonks

7 min readFeb 16, 2022

Introduction

Our lives have changed appreciably since the discovery of the steam engine in the late 18th century. The internet and artificial intelligence, which entered our lives after the steam engine, internal combustion engines, and electric motors, have brought us into a completely different life in the last hundred years, as if with a domino effect. Today, technology has changed so much that we are struggling with the protection of our sacred, democracy, and law, which have been important for us for years, from this monster that we created with our own hands. In this article, I will cover the effects of the internet, which has changed the last half-century, and artificial intelligence, which has come after it, on democracy and the studies done to protect it from these effects.

Social Media and Democracy

An unusual campaign was carried out in the 2016 presidential elections in the United States and during the Brexit process. Social media platforms, which are a part of our lives, have included our data on these platforms in these campaigns without our knowledge and permission. Although Donald Trump was behind in the questionnaires, he was elected president in the elections. While running the Trump campaign, Facebook and Cambridge Analytica charted his roadmap. Facebook shared the election personal data of its users living in the USA with Cambridge Analytica. Cambridge Analytica analyzed and classified this data using artificial intelligence. They then prepared Trump’s election campaigns for each state voter using this classification. After a while, the abstention votes and even the votes supporting the opposing candidate turned in favor of Trump. We can say that preparing an election campaign using the data of individuals is the most innocent of the problems experienced today or in the future.

Another problem is fake news. Fake news in political arenas has existed since ancient times. Many kings lost their thrones, many kings lost their heads due to the fake news. Howbeit today, this situation has become more dangerous owing to artificial intelligence and the internet. Thanks to artificial intelligence, this news can spread faster. Thanks to bot accounts managed by artificial intelligence, it can be become a hit very quickly and brought to the wall to attract the attention of the relevant voter. More dangerous are deep fakes created using artificial intelligence. Today, technology has developed so rapidly that images, sound recordings, and video recordings that do not belong to people can be edited as if they are theirs and spread very quickly on social media. In order to influence the views of the voters, fake pornographic images, audio recordings, or photographs of politicians can suddenly become a hit on social media together with a piece of fake news and change the views of the voters. The power of artificial intelligence is harnessed to create and spread this fake news. Throughout fake news, millions of content fell on social media in the United States presidential election in 2016, and people were manipulated into the agenda quickly. According to the computer-based propaganda research project report published in 2018, such manipulations were carried out in 48 country elections until 2018. In the 2016 elections, Russia manipulated a lot of fake news against the candidates in the United States through social media. voice recordings or photographs can suddenly become the agenda of social media together with a piece of fake news and change the opinions of the voters. The power of artificial intelligence is harnessed to create and spread this fake news. Throughout fake news, millions of content fell on social media in the United States presidential election in 2016, and people were manipulated into the order quickly. According to the computer-based propaganda research project report published in 2018, such manipulations were carried out in 48 country elections until 2018. In the 2016 elections, Russia manipulated a lot of fake news against the candidates in the United States through social media. voice recordings or photographs can suddenly become the agenda of social media together with a piece of fake news and change the opinions of the voters. The power of artificial intelligence is harnessed to create and spread this fake news. Through fake news, millions of content fell on social media in the United States presidential election in 2016, and people were manipulated into the agenda quickly. According to the computer-based propaganda research project report published in 2018, such manipulations were carried out in 48 country elections until 2018. In the 2016 elections, Russia manipulated a lot of fake news against the candidates in the United States through social media.

Another problem is that it is stated that actions for democracy will decrease due to the tagging and tracking activities of artificial intelligence, which will harm democracy.

In Hong Kong protests, the demonstrators wore masks, used umbrellas and lasers because of the camera systems with artificial intelligence-based face recognition and tagging in the city. Many authorities, especially in China, use artificial intelligence technology to track, monitor, and tag their citizens in a way that harms their privacy. In Hong Kong protests, they did this with social media and artificial intelligence-based software and imaging system on the streets, and these images with lasers, umbrellas, and masks emerged. Social media is a great platform for people to make their voices heard and organize for democracy and freedom. The Arab spring is the best example of this, the masses first gathered on social media for democracy and freedom, and they were able to overthrow many dictators.

Hacking the Votes

Another problem that threatens democracy through technology is the hacking of systems used in electronic voting or data storage systems where votes are conserved. Along with the word “internet”, the word “hack” entered our lives. If we define it briefly, we can say that it is theft and espionage in the digital environment. One of the biggest dangers in elections is stealing the votes. Today, we can turn this fear into hacking the votes. The United States experienced this fear in the elections held in 2016. One night, after a Russian-backed cyber-attack, the threat of stealing the votes occurred. Today, cyberattacks against votes have reached a more dangerous level because cyberattacks can now perform artificial intelligence-based algorithms in a more dangerous way.

Approaches for the Protection of Democracy Against the Internet and Artificial Intelligence

Studies on this subject are still continuing in the United States and the European Union. In the White Paper published by the European Commission and in the study on artificial intelligence regulation by CHAI, a red line was drawn for the filing and tracking activities of artificial intelligence for individuals, and it was stated that authorities and developers should be supervised in order not to carry out these activities. In addition, in other studies, it was stated that developers and users should be trained, and developers should be supervised with strict regulations. Again, in other studies and reports, it was stated that these attacks should be prevented by establishing prevention units against cyber attacks. Again, in the studies conducted in the United States, regulations are made for these social media platforms to control and prevent these contents by using artificial intelligence against deep fakes and untrue news. In addition, Facebook, Twitter, and Google are working to prevent this situation with the filtering procedure against fake news and bot accounts, thanks to the artificial intelligence algorithms they have. Again, there are provisions in the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) to protect personal data on social media platforms, and lastly, efforts are being made to prevent these situations with efforts to make social media platforms released both in our country, Europe, and other countries controllable.

Conclusion

The Internet and artificial intelligence are revolutionary discoveries that will open and close the era. Although we try to stay away from these discoveries by talking about the harms of these discoveries, eventually these discoveries will draw us in. In this process, we cannot break our ties with them and set up a barrier, but we can also prevent them from harming us and our values. If we do not work and make arrangements for this as the whole world, one day we will lose our holy ones who made us who we are and we will be dragged into chaos…

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Negative Effects of Artificial Intelligence and Internet on Democracy

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Written by Şaban İbrahim GÖKSAL