Bauer on Persily on Whether Democracy Can Survive the Internet
Important but depressing.
Category Archives: social media and social protests
“A scholar asks, ‘Can democracy survive the Internet?’”
Dan Balz for WaPo:
In more innocent times, the rise of the Internet was seen by many people as a boon to democracy. Disruptive, yes, but the Web broadened the flow of information, introduced new voices into the political debates,… Continue reading
Persily, “Can Democracy Survive the Internet?”
Nate Persily has written this article for the Journal of Democracy. Here is the abstract:
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… Continue reading
No, the Attempt to Block the Unmasking of Trump Critic on Twitter Does Not Mean Campaign Finance Disclosure is Unconstitutional
Some on the right have claimed that the complaint filed by Twitter (via Seth Waxman) seeking to block the Trump administration from forcing Twitter to reveal the identity of a Twitter user critical of the government (and perhaps working for… Continue reading
“Internet Politics–Is the Problem the Politics or the Internet?”
“Democracy, Disrupted”
Must-read Tom Edsall in the NYT:
As the forces of reaction outpace movements predicated on the ideal of progress, and as traditional norms of political competition are tossed aside, it’s clear that the internet and social media have succeeded in… Continue reading
DC Circuit, Citing “My Cousin Vinny,” Holds @99Rise Campaign Finance Protesters at #SCOTUS Can Be Charged Under Law Barring “Harangues or Orations”
Tony Mauro for the NLJ:
A federal appeals panel on Friday upheld the law barring anyone from making “a harangue or oration” at the U.S. Supreme Court—the latest in a series of rulings protecting the high court from protesters inside… Continue reading
#DemocracyRIP: Russians Sought to Undermine Legitimacy of a Clinton Presidency in Social Media Campaign
From the joint intelligence report at page 2:
We assess the influence campaign aspired to help President-elect Trump’s chances of victory when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to the President-elect. When it appeared to Moscow… Continue reading
“Police End NAACP Sit-In Against Attorney General Nominee”
AP:
Several NAACP protesters led by their national president were escorted away in handcuffs by police after staging a sit-in Tuesday at the Alabama office of Sen. Jeff Sessions, the nominee for U.S. attorney general, the civil rights group said.
“About 20 arrested after protesters pack legislature to protest GOP ‘power grab’”
“Federal Prosecutors Want Broad Authority To Go After Supreme Court Protesters”
Zoe Tillman for BuzzFeed News:
On April 1, 2015, five men and women were arrested for demonstrating inside the US Supreme Court. One by one, they stood up at the start of arguments before the justices and spoke or sang… Continue reading
“Automated Pro-Trump Bots Overwhelmed Pro-Clinton Messages, Researchers Say”
NYT:
An automated army of pro-Donald J. Trump chatbots overwhelmed similar programs supporting Hillary Clinton five to one in the days leading up to the presidential election, according to a report published Thursday by researchers at Oxford University.
The… Continue reading
“Viral Fake Election News Outperformed Real News On Facebook In Final Months Of The US Election”
BuzzFeed:
In the final three months of the US presidential campaign, the top-performing fake election news stories on Facebook generated more engagement than the top stories from major news outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post,… Continue reading
“Social Media’s Globe-Shaking Power”
Must-read Farhad Manjoo NYT:
On Monday, both Google and Facebook altered their advertising policies to explicitly prohibit sites that traffic in fake news from making money off lies. That’s very likely a worthwhile fix, even if it comes too late.… Continue reading