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Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy
12 March 2021

Is Facebook a danger to democracy?

“Inside Geneva” podcast with Scott Campbell, Shalini Randeria and Daniel Warner

The power of big tech and social media and its consequences for human rights and democracy is the focus of the new episode of the podcast series Inside Geneva hosted by Imogen Foulkes. Released on 9 March, this episode features Shalini Randeria, Director of the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy, who shares her thoughts with political analyst Daniel Warner and Scott Campbell, Senior Human Rights Officer of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Professor Randeria argues that there exists a clear disjuncture between democracy and big technology. As opposed to social media’s fast movements and decentralized nature, democracy needs plurality, informed citizens, compromises, and slow deliberative decision making. Daniel Warner also questions how the CEOs of social media companies with their money and technology are becoming even more powerful than heads of states.

Although much of the focus tends to be on content moderation, more attention should be given to the regulation of big tech’s monopoly power, according to Shalini Randeria. Scott Campbell agrees and says that it will be nearly impossible to moderate content that comes in the billions and that what is more feasible is to compel social media companies to be more transparent in their processes and provide avenues for appeal.

From the initial euphoria over how social media can facilitate democratic movements as witnessed in the Arab Spring to the eventual skepticism that has been stoked by Cambridge Analytica scandal and Myanmar crisis, what has become clear is that unleashing the potential of digital technologies in advancing democratic freedoms and rights does not come without addressing the risks that come along with it.
 

Listen to the episode here.
 

Watch also the panel discussion with David Carroll, Paul-Olivier Dehaye, Stéphane Duguin and Shalini Randeria commenting on the film The Great Hack - Cambridge  Analytica and the dark side of social media here.