This is not a black and white issue. Although I am not a supporter of censorship on the internet, I do agree with others here that misinformation on social media is a present threat democracy.
There are tree pillars to our democracy: government, the media and voters. The role of media is to stay independent neutral and to inform the people, the role of voters is to seek information, and actively participate in the democracy. Nowadays, social media has largely taken over the role of the media, and self-feeding recommendation algorithms have only exacerbated the problem. Nevertheless, the greater problem and the true cause of our current division is the failure of our education system. People are simply not trained to think critically, and seek out arguments that oppose their own.
Unfortunately, fixing our education system will take many years, or even a generation. It may be putting the horse before the cart, but for now I think the simpler fix is at the level of social media. Have any of you noticed how greedy the YouTube algorithm is? I watch one video on conspiracy theories, just out of curiosity, and suddenly I have like half a dozen similar recommendations on my homepage. This can only have the effect of boxing people into their own belief system...
There are tree pillars to our democracy: government, the media and voters. The role of media is to stay independent neutral and to inform the people, the role of voters is to seek information, and actively participate in the democracy. Nowadays, social media has largely taken over the role of the media, and self-feeding recommendation algorithms have only exacerbated the problem. Nevertheless, the greater problem and the true cause of our current division is the failure of our education system. People are simply not trained to think critically, and seek out arguments that oppose their own.
Unfortunately, fixing our education system will take many years, or even a generation. It may be putting the horse before the cart, but for now I think the simpler fix is at the level of social media. Have any of you noticed how greedy the YouTube algorithm is? I watch one video on conspiracy theories, just out of curiosity, and suddenly I have like half a dozen similar recommendations on my homepage. This can only have the effect of boxing people into their own belief system...