Agree:
Gary King Professor at the Harvard University, political scientist and quantitative methodologist
We estimate that the government fabricates and posts about 448 million social media comments a year. The Chinese regime’s strategy is to avoid arguing with skeptics of the party and the government, and to not even discuss controversial issues. We show that the goal of this massive secretive operation is instead to distract the public and change subject.
Zeynep Tufekci Associate Professor at the University of Carolina, writer and techno-sociologist
Rather than a complete totalitarianism based on fear and the blocking of information, the newer methods include demonizing online media and mobilizing armies of supporters or paid employees who muddy the online waters with misinformation, information overload, doubt, confusion, harassment, and distraction
Francis Fukuyama Senior Fellow at Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute, political scientist
There are entire countries where Facebook Messenger has replaced email as the primary channel by which people communicate. This kind of power wielded at such a scale is unprecedented in human experience, and we need to think carefully about whether American democracy can continue to coexist with such power concentrated over the longer run.Disagree:
Bill Gates Philanthropist. Founder and former CEO of Microsoft.
I felt sure that allowing anyone to publish information and making it easy to find would enhance democracy and the overall quality of political debate. However, the partitioning you talk about which started on cable TV and might be even stronger in the digital world is a concern. We all need to think about how to avoid this problem. It would seem strange to have to force people to look at ideas th... See More
Mark Zuckerberg CEO at Facebook
We'll keep working to ensure the integrity of free and fair elections around the world, and to ensure our community is a platform for all ideas and force for good in democracy. The data we have has always shown that our broader impact -- from giving people a voice to enabling candidates to communicate directly to helping millions of people vote -- played a far bigger role in this election [than mi... See More
