Algorithmic technologies and democracy: political impacts and challenges presented by the new ICTs

impactos e desafios políticos das novas TIC

Abstract

The Internet has transformed our ways of communication as well as our political life. Recently, the widespread adoption of algorithmic technologies, socio-digital platforms and a data-extractivist economy have altered yet again the landscape that had been presenting itself from the popular adoption of the Internet. The initial perception that it could be the agora of the 21st. century made way for the centralized structuring of its protocols, deepened by a platform capitalism, formatting and controlling the distribution of content. With the establishment of a data extractivist economy, this control is then realized by automated mechanisms based on artificial intelligence algorithms that build profiles of their users that burst the private sphere. All these movements present serious impasses to democratic experiences. This paper examines these impasses both from a theoretical standpoint and through the documental analysis on the election campaign of Donald Trump, reaching the conclusions that algorithmic technologies affect the possibilities of free transit of ideas and discourses.