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Persily, Journal of Democracy (2017)
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Relevant to AI safety discussions around AI-enabled disinformation, information manipulation, and the governance challenges posed by algorithmic systems influencing public discourse and democratic integrity.
Metadata
Importance: 45/100journal articleanalysis
Summary
Nathaniel Persily analyzes how the internet and social media shaped the 2016 U.S. election, examining the roles of disinformation, filter bubbles, foreign interference, and microtargeting in undermining democratic processes. The article questions whether democratic institutions can adapt to the information ecosystem created by digital platforms. It serves as an early authoritative diagnosis of internet-era threats to democratic governance.
Key Points
- •Social media platforms enabled unprecedented spread of disinformation and foreign interference in the 2016 U.S. election.
- •Filter bubbles and algorithmic curation may reinforce polarization by limiting exposure to diverse viewpoints.
- •Microtargeting of voters by political campaigns raises concerns about manipulation and lack of transparency.
- •Traditional democratic norms and regulatory frameworks are ill-equipped to handle the speed and scale of internet-driven influence operations.
- •The piece raises systemic questions about whether liberal democracy can remain robust in a high-misinformation digital environment.
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| AI-Accelerated Reality Fragmentation | Risk | 28.0 |
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The 2016 U.S. Election: Can Democracy Survive the Internet? | Journal of Democracy The 2016 U.S. Election: Can Democracy Survive the Internet? Nathaniel Persily Issue Date April 2017 Volume 28 Issue 2 Page Numbers 63-76 file Print arrow-down-thin Download from Project MUSE external View Citation Select your citation format: MLA (Modern Language Association 8th edition) Chicago Manual of Style 16th edition (full note) APA (American Psychological Association 7th edition) The 2016 presidential election represents the latest chapter in the disintegration of the legacy institutions that had set bounds for U.S. politics in the postwar era. It is tempting (and in many ways correct) to view the Donald Trump campaign as unprecedented in its breaking of established norms of politics. Yet this type of campaign could only be successful because established institutions—especially the mainstream media and political-party organizations—had already lost most of their power, both in the United States and around the world. The void that these eroding institutions left was filled by an unmediated populist nationalism tailor-made for the Internet age. About the Author Nathaniel Persily is James B. McClatchy Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. View all work by Nathaniel Persily PDF Download Complimentary PDF Supplements PDF Full-Format Endnotes – Can Democracy Survive the Internet Subject Democratic decline , Media , Social media Region Advanced Democracies , North America Country United States Share Further Reading Volume 30, Issue 2 30 Years After Tiananmen: Memory in the Era of Xi Jinping Glenn Tiffert Xi reads Tiananmen as a cautionary tale, and he has sought to centralize power and reverse years of ideological atrophy. By controlling the past, he is trying to determine how… Volume 31, Issue 3 Social Media Disruption: Messaging Mistrust in Latin America Noam Lupu Mariana V. Ramírez Bustamante Elizabeth J. Zechmeister In Latin America, greater exposure to social media—and the digital misinformation that comes with it—seems to be bolstering prodemocratic attitudes even as it fuels public distrust in democratic institutions. Volume 36, Issue 4 Why Bitcoin Is Freedom Money Alex Gladstein Today, governments can see who buys what, who pays whom, and who donates to which cause. But they cannot easily trace or confiscate Bitcoin. The digital currency offers a lifeline… Search for: search close
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