Is social media shaping world politics and is populist agenda now more important than democrasy?

Faust

I think once we have the lunatics running the madhouse then we are heading for a really bad place.

Bl4ckGryph0n

Totally agree, nothing new there. What is new is that it is actually more visible and open to scrutiny. I think that is a good thing.

raduv1

Whilst it's open to scrutiny it seems to be lacking any real teeth on regulation and is normalised to a point of little real world repercussions considering the vast fortunes these tech giants make  . It is a powerful tool but is it now being used for manipulation,  not only political ?

This one tweet knocked $5.7 bn of the value of Amazon.

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/897763049226084352

Amazon is doing great damage to tax paying retailers. Towns, cities and states throughout the U.S. are being hurt - many jobs being lost!

11:12 AM - Aug 16, 2017

66.4K
45K people are talking about thisThis one resulted in Tesla share price jumping 11% until they halted trading .


Elon Musk

@elonmusk
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1026872652290379776

Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.

5:48 PM - Aug 7, 2018

87.7K
22.3K people are talking about thisOne lil tweet .

Faust

Can you provide any evidence to back that up? I'm particularly referring to Western democracies .

imightbewrong

So what would have happened if he had said it in an interview on TV, the radio, in a newspaper rather than Tweeting it?

raduv1

I would of hope a pre planned outburst that can and may send stock tumbling or going through the roof would have aids , staff etc  to say hold on you can't do that mate as it could be seen as stock market manipulation and one would take a step back . Twitter is instant and effective in regards to both tweets  they never backed up said tweet with any  policy or business. As such one tweet from one person cost many a few but I expect made a few some serious $$$ .

imightbewrong

He could have just as easily said something like that off the cuff in an interview or if someone stuck a mic in front of him at some event.  The power is in the words not the delivery mechanism.

IronGiant

Can you provide any evidence that with:
or are you just quietly trolling in the absence of BFFE enki?

raduv1

Again the POTUS tweet was not policy and yet it knocked $5.7 billion off Amazon's value . The point of this thread was or my point was is social media now so powerful that it has overtaken democracy and politics and is now a more powerful tool .

A question , we will use Trump as an example here . What does he use more to get his message out ? Social media or News media outlets ? And also why would he choose one over another ?

imightbewrong

I'm not sure what you mean by 'Twitter is more powerful than Democracy".

Trump says all sorts when he has a mic in front of him - just look at what he said on his campaign, or any time he goes on Fox and Friends or anything else.

I couldn't possibly tell you which he uses 'more' as I don't follow his twitter feed or watch American news/'news' programs or watch the Whitehouse press briefings - other than what I see clips of on the BBC news site.