#153 - Is Social Media Good for Democracy?

Open to Debate

Education, Society & Culture, News, Government, Politics

4.5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 14 June 2019

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A decade ago, Facebook and Twitter promised a digital revolution that would bolster democratic values and empower users around the world. Did that work out? In this episode, we take a look back at one of our most important debates to date. Join four leading thinkers in tech, policy, and media for spirited and timely debate on the motion, "Social Media Is Good For Democracy." Cast your vote on the motion at iq2us.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm John Don Van, host and moderator of Intelligent Square US debates, which I'm guessing you knew.
0:07.0	Well this summer, as our team prepares for our 13th season, 13.
0:13.0	Well, we're taking a look back into our archive.
0:15.0	At this point, we have presented more than 160 debates, that's over 12 years.
0:20.0	And the one that you're about to hear keeps getting more and more relevant.
0:24.0	The resolution, social media, is good for democracy.
0:29.0	We did this one last June when we brought four of the brightest minds in tech and policy to the Aspen Ideas Festival
0:35.0	to debate the question of whether social media bolsters democracy or undermines it.
0:41.0	Let's get right to it.
0:45.0	In a world that is absolutely without social media.
0:49.0	And there was a world like that, I think I remember living in it, and I'm sure some of you do too.
0:54.0	In such a world without social media, lots of things that we now take as fact might never have happened.
0:59.0	The women's march never would have happened without Facebook.
1:02.0	The Me Too movement, dependent on Twitter, so did Black Lives Matter, and then there's the Parkland students hashtag.
1:08.0	On the other hand, Facebook, and also Twitter, these places were vehicles through which an election got itself hacked.
1:16.0	And fake news, real fake news, which is something of an oxymoron, that kind of fake news got itself spread around corrupting the democratic process and manipulating us by algorithm.
1:26.0	So we have social media as the great connector, a democracy enhancer, and we have social media as poison in the process, and poison for the discourse, a democracy corruptor.
1:36.0	And which of those things is social media, mostly? Well, we think that has the makings of a debate.
1:43.0	So let's have it. Yes or no to this statement. Social media is good for democracy.
1:48.0	I'm John Don Van, and I stand between two teams of two experts in this topic, who will argue for and against that motion.
1:55.0	As always, our debate will go in three rounds, and then our live audience here at the St. Regis Hotel in Aspen, Colorado will vote to choose the winner.
2:03.0	And as always, if all goes well, civil discourse will also win.
	...

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