Internet Platforms and the Affordances of Democracy

(I am including here in the panel rationale).

Internet Platforms and the Affordances of Democracy

Threats to democracy either introduced or amplified by online platforms are myriad. Consider this grim list: election meddling from foreign countries; the proliferation of fake news (alongside the weaponization of “fake news” to describe real news); racist field-and-rank algorithms in searches and other feeds (Safiya Noble); polarization and “filter bubbles” that, among other consequences, advance populist candidates (Groshek and Koc-Michalska); trolling, doxxing, and other forms of unwanted attention (Jiyeon Kang); radicalizing YouTube algorithms (Zeynep Tufekci); and the whack-a-mole persistence of white supremacist groups and violent incels. By contrast, some minor victories appear pathetically paltry: the shutting down of Alex Jones’ Facebook account, for example, or the duration and presence of the #metoo movement. While each online platform has its own unique openings and closures for democratic possibility, all of them are subtended by profit imperatives that, among other consequences, incentivize flashy clickbait over sustained dialogue.

In this panel, contributors drawn from a range of fields, institutional affiliations, and career stages each engage a case study of a particular online platform to pursue a superordinate series of questions. Given that online platforms form an inescapable milieu for contemporary democratic engagement, how shall we go about the work of living together? Which platforms, habits, or practices hearken openings or predict foreclosures for the difficult but crucial work of democratic deliberation? Which conceptual resources from the long tradition of American philosophy on democracy must be reworked, reconsidered, or relegated aside given the pressures of the contemporary moment? According to John Dewey, democracy is at risk unless we cultivate the dispositions that support it. Taken together, the contributions on this panel argue that we need more than dispositions, but also a reclamation of the digital sphere as a common public good.