Recently social media have been blamed for many ills of democracy. Yet in the most recent elections in India in 2024, YouTube, among others, was a vital channel for the opposition parties and for critics of the government, perhaps more so than traditional media. True, an essential factor in Modi’s and Trump’s first electoral victory was Twitter. But on that occasion, it was not disinformation, filter bubbles, polarization or algorithms. Rather, both candidates circumvented gatekeepers. How to theorize the role of online politics? I will argue that non-gatekept online media are here to stay as part of the public arena. They allow counterpublics to challenge elites and traditional media, for better and worse. This has given rise to populism in the US and India. The solution lies in restoring the reliability of the public arena; its impartiality, inclusiveness, and diversity – including the non-gatekept part. The solution does not rest on media alone; it also requires greater responsiveness of elites to citizens so as to deepen and broaden their rights – within, rather than against, the grain of distinctive political traditions, expanding them.
This event is co-hosted by the Weizenbaum Institute.
