The impact of digital technologies on American democracy continues to vex policymakers, corporate players and the public at the most fundamental level.
In the past month, Mark Zuckerberg was grilled by Congress about Facebook’s decision to allow factually false claims in political advertising. California passed a law requiring the internet companies underpinning the “gig economy” to treat workers as full employees rather than independent contractors. The message board 8chan-a notorious forum for extremist content-had its servers shut down after the tragic summer shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. And a tweet from an NBA executive on the protests in Hong Kong sparked a global firestorm over whether China could determine American free speech policy.
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Source: Big Tech could break democracy. Knowledge is our best defense.