Exponential Technology: could complicate democracy according to PEW survey
According to a PEW study released these days, there is much concern among technology experts about the impact that accelerated technology development could have on society and in particular on democracy.
Half of the respondents are concerned that by 2030, the impacts of accelerated technology development, the decline of journalism, and the emergence of espionage capitalism as the main business model of the digital world, go to further damage the social fabric and livelihood of democracy.
The same report states that one third of respondents are confident that the same evolution of technology could help match things, as people understand a little more about what changes are treated and digital transformation in society evolves and the organizations.
Internet that promised to free societies and people and give it a voice that can be heard without relying on hegemonic media, has given rise to many people and organizations that have taken advantage of the speed, reach and impact of the world. digital.
In numbers: about 49% of these respondents say that the use of technology will mainly weaken the central aspects of democracy and democratic representation in the next decade, 33% say that the use of technology will mainly strengthen the central aspects of Democracy and democratic representation and 18% say there will be no change in the next decade.
Some of the participants in the consultation think that the information and trust environment will get worse by 2030 thanks to the increase in “deep” video fakes, cheap fakes and other disinformation tactics. They fear that this downward spiral towards disbelief and despair is also linked to the prolonged struggles facing “true” and “independent” journalism. In addition, many of these experts say they are concerned about the future of democracy due to the power of the main technology companies and their role in the democratic discourse, as well as the way in which these companies exploit the data they collect about users.
In explaining why he feels that the use of technology will mostly weaken the central aspects of democracy and democratic representation, Jonathan Morgan, principal design researcher at the Wikimedia Foundation, described the problem in this way: “I am mainly concerned with three things.
1. The use of social networks by interested groups to disseminate misinformation in a strategic and coordinated way with the purpose of undermining people’s trust in institutions and / or convincing them to create things that are not true.
2. The role of private and closed platforms managed by for-profit companies in the dissemination of information to citizens, the collection of information (and about) citizens and the participation of political stakeholder groups. These platforms were not designed to be “digital commons”, they are not equally accessible to all and do not run for the sake of promoting social welfare or broad-based civic participation. The reasons for profit, business models, data collection practices, the opacity of the process / procedure and the power of these companies (and, therefore, resistance against regulation undertaken for prosocial purposes) make them unsuitable To promote democracy.
3. The growing role of surveillance by digital platform owners (and other economic actors who collect and carry out digital tracking data transactions), as well as by state actors, and the increasing power of technologies of surveillance based on machine learning to capture and analyze data, threaten the public’s ability to participate safely and equitably in civic discussions. “
