The Freedom of Speech makes Digital Democracy extremely vulnerable

Since the popularization of Internet in the 1990s and its implementation into our common social and daily routines the digital field has become familiar as a place for instant public expressions and freedom of speech. Thus, the network media and social platforms have become major factors for observation and analysis the public reactions by creating form of digital democracy tightly related to contemporary governmental and political topics.

Unfortunately, the present process of media information provision, public online discussion and political decision making[1] in the digital realm leaves the impression that the Western societies have become predisposed to extreme tensions and radical sentiments initiated by their personal understanding of participation into the current national democratic affairs and the following examples can validate this statement.

Firstly, the fierce terror attacks in Europe claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS) since the last 2 years have inspired most researchers, mediators and academics to increase the negative tensions among the general public. Such effect has been achieved though the creation of their own professional interpretation of the events without standing on any official conclusions made by the authorities[2].

Secondly, this overall tendency of information spread within the media realm has led to rapidly growing appearance of nationalist movements in the digital social networks[3]. Moreover, the free speech in Internet not only enabled the populist and radical xenophobic supporters to become more visible by demonstrating their strong public position concerning ISIS attacks but even to transmit their extreme standpoint on the US political scene.

Thirdly, as official candidate for President of the United States, Donald Trump has truly helped the Republican Party to win the support of white nationalists mainly with his Immigration plan which intend to make America great again by building a wall on the bother with Mexico and by increasing the standards for the admission of refugees and asylum-seekers in the States[4].

The effect of digital democracy on media and politics is frequently defined as revolutionary. Yet, the type of public activity expressed recently in the digital field demonstrates that the free interpretation of information continues to depend on additional factors such as personal perspective and individual models of understanding the contemporary basics socio-democratic principles.

[1] van Dijk, J. (2013), “Digital Democracy: Vision and Reality”, Public Administration in the Information Age: Revised, pp.1-17

[2] Gartenstein-Ross, D. & Barr, N. ”The Myth of Lone-Wolf Terrorism”, Foreign Affairs, July 2016, <https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/western-europe/2016-07-26/myth-lone-wolf-terrorism?cid=soc-tw-rdr> (04.09.2016)

[3] Garcia, F. (2016), “White nationalist movement growing much faster than Isis on Twitter, study finds”, Independent, Sept 2016, <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/white-nationalist-movement-twitter-faster-growth-isis-islamic-state-study-a7223671.html?cmpid=facebook-post> (04.09.2016)

[4] Trump Pence Make America Great Again 2016, Immigration Reform that will Make America Great Again, <https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/immigration-reform> (04.09.2016)