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Democracy and Curative Algorithms
A Cautious Critique of Social Media and Democracy
When I publish this story on Medium, who will see it? On whose feed will my story appear? Well, I am quite as clueless as you are.
Once this story is published, I have basically handed it over to Medium’s algorithm which decides what to do with it and how to distribute it. The algorithm will take many ifs-and-thens into account before it decides on whom’s feed it will make this story visible.
More importantly, the logic behind those ifs-and-thens is a business secret — an admirable one, I should add — but that is nothing new. Every big social media company has its own algorithm. Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, you name it. The algorithm is basically their product, so it is not surprising that it is a business secret.
In as much that is the case, I am not here to rant about the fact that most social media algorithms are business secrets or otherwise opaque. Instead, I should like to discuss the matter of what consequences these self-filtering algorithms may have on democracy.
Public Sphere
There is more to democracy than just using your vote once in a while. Democracy is a way of life that prompts people to be more tolerant of plurality and to engage in moral debate with…
