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The Conversation

Lisa Schirch, Professor of the Practice of Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame

UNCOVERED: Social media can support or undermine democracy it comes down to how it s designed | History Defined

Democracy Elon Musk Maria Ressa

A protester calls out Facebook for facilitating the spread of disinformation. AP Photo/Jeff Chiu

Every design choice that social media platforms make nudges users toward certain actions, values and emotional states.

It is a design choice to offer a news feed that combines verified news sources with conspiracy blogs – interspersed with photos of a family picnic – with no distinction between these very different types of information. It is a design choice to use algorithms that find the most emotional or outrageous content to show users, hoping it keeps them online. And it is a design choice to send bright red notifications, keeping people in a state of expectation for the next photo or juicy piece of gossip.

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