Facebook and Issue Based Democratic Participation

Zecevic, Nikola Dragan

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Facebook and Issue Based Democratic Participation

Zecevic, Nikola Dragan

Abstract

Facebook boasts it has over 2.2 billion users. That means over a quarter of the world’s population is now on a single social platform. The effects of this sudden and mass exodus of humans from the real world into a digital sphere has proved to be turbulent to democracy, and it seems the way Facebook operates under its business model is in many ways is to blame. Facebook has recently found itself at the center of a debate regarding privacy and data. Ever since the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal which came to light following the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, the business model which Facebook operates under has been under scrutiny. The company which has branded itself as a free platform for bringing the world together is in fact not all it makes itself out to be. Facebook is in fact exploiting its users for their data and selling it to their real customers- the advertisers. This model of operation has become detrimental to democracy as foreign actors, data mining companies and the politicians that employ them are using the platform to spread content aimed at influencing elections using highly targeted ads which feature highly contentious political and social issues. The purpose of this analysis is to shed light on how Facebook’s business model effects issue based democratic participation.