Renewing Citizen Trust in Democratic Institutions and Governance | Mainstage

Democracy is in crisis, exacerbated in part by the proliferation of social media. Dawn Nakagawa, Executive Vice President of the Berggruen Institute, reminded the audience that narratives used to be controlled more carefully by gatekeepers, and the opening afforded by social media has led to destabilization.

Technology has become a perfect storm, according to Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. It allows distortion and encourages amplification, making it difficult to differentiate between lies and truth. According to Yael Eisenstat, Future of Democracy Fellow at the Berggruen Institute, big platforms have a particular responsibility for accountability. Using the example of Facebook and recent stories of political advertising and voter suppression, she noted the tension between the desire to scale and social responsibility. Diagnosing the problem is a challenge, noted Eli Pariser, Co-Director of New_Public. In the offline world, public spaces are built in a different way for different purposes. Libraries, for example, exist not for profit but as social good. Private social media enterprises are not incentivized in the same way. 

Khan reiterated the right to freedom of expression in the absence of smart regulations. While some governments work to regulate content, others support digital rights. Global standards should require social media companies to live up to human rights standards. Increased political polarization is hindering the ability to come to common standards, Eisenstat continued. The government must rebuild trust and legislate limits to the way social media platforms can use data. The issue of social media, like that of climate change, has moved into a crisis discipline. Pariser noted that we currently lack imagination about what a truly open internet—built on social values rather than by venture capitalists—would mean. 

Nakagawa ended the panel by reminding the audience that the genie will never return to the bottle. Democracy is larger than one person and one vote, and governments have a responsibility to rebuild trust with their citizens.

• The proliferation of social media has exacerbated the cracks in democracies worldwide. Social media companies bear responsibility for pursuing profit over the common good.
• Fixing the problem will require private industry to make changes, governments to institute regulations, and citizens to reimagine what the internet could be.