Not long after the Black Lives Matter movement picked momentum, Mimi Groves, a young adult who was the varsity cheer captain and was going to attend her dream college, University of Tennessee, became the victim of social media mob. She had posted a video on snapchat when she was an adolescent using a racial slur. The consequences of this reverberated when her classmate posted the video online and the protests and uproar forced the university to withdraw her admission. I leave it on the readers to decide if the girl was justly punished or not. Whether or not, the noisy hyperconnected world always stand with the right.
Recently, the Nigerian government banned Twitter in the nation because it was undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence. Not only Nigeria, but many other countries like Turkey, Iran, Uganda etc have temporarily/permanently banned the social media giant. With trending hashtags taking the form of mass movements against the government, social media has given voice to the citizens. Maybe that is why many countries across the world resort to a complete internet shutdown in times when they fear the wrath of the public.
Technology does have its perils that threaten the democracies of the nations. It is not only the citizens using social media to keep themselves updated, but also the governments using it for malign propaganda campaigns. The governments are increasingly using technology for mass surveillance and extracting personal information that can be used to profile each citizen. The political campaigns have in the past used data to micro-target citizens and spread disinformation. This can lead to a state of digital authoritarianism. Widespread use of personal data, as in the US election campaign to profile the citizens and target them with personalised political ads essentially hints at the candidates playing with the psychology of an entire country without their consent or awareness in the context of a democratic process. This information warfare and dependency on tech platforms is ruining our democracies. Data rights are fundamental to an individual’s privacy but rarely do governments realise and acknowledge this.
The technology usage, which goes far beyond political campaigning, such as tech giants using algorithms to create a personalised experience for each user, also threatens our democracy. Today, the algorithms know a person better than they know themselves. In effect, democracy is not based on rationality but on feelings, as quoted by Yuval Noah Harari. With these algorithms of tech platforms manipulating our emotions, are leading to a state of data dictatorship. The home page of an app like Instagram would look very different for me and for my sister, just because the algorithms alter the content it displays based on our past digital history. This leads one to question if we are being domesticated by data? Is all the information being displayed to us or only a biased select of information? Are our opinions formed on half knowledge?
The technology has advanced so much that the new generation has ingrained the constant presence in their lives. The new generation now expects robots to be socially smart. Reports suggest that people trust computers more than humans because of the trust they place on algorithms. But is it all true? The AI algorithms cannot be expected to be compassionate; one cannot expect these algorithms to show you news and articles that may be uncomfortable to you but necessary for you to read to understand the whole truth.
We’ve just seen a pandemic, followed by a Russian war, all consumed through memes and reels, trending hashtags and brutal voices silencing others because they hide behind the anonymity of the internet, with no legislations in place to protect digital rights; corporates selling data to make money and the government buying it to influence us. Its time we realise the magnitude of technology’s threat to democracy and adapt adequate measures to ensure its usage only for the good.
References
· A Racial Slur, a Viral Video, and a Reckoning — NY Times
· Evidence Mounts Of Social Media’s Negative Impacts for Democracy — Forbes
· People may trust computers more than humans to perform some tasks, study says — The Hindu
