In a well-functioning democracy, citizens are informed by government, by an independent media, by other citizens, and by their direct experiences. They consent to being represented and governed; and they have and express participation rights, including of dissent and holding the government to account. It is becoming ever more apparent that these fundamentals of trust, informed dialogue, shared sense of reality, and mutual consent are being put to the test by certain features and attributes of social media. In other words, they have disrupted our public square. As companies derive business success by virtue of the way they monetize public attention, it is worth examining some of the key issues that arise as a result of social media’s underlying logic and architecture.
