Truth Decay: How does online activism affect democracy?
UK Prime Minister Theresa May delivered her sharpest rebuke yet to the tech industry on Thursday, in a keynote address to the World Economic Forum that focused on the digital… Read more »
Author Archives: DemDigest
Russian trolls ‘only part of the disinformation problem’
Russian agents created 129 events on the social media network during the 2016 U.S. election campaign, according to Facebook’s testimony to Congress, shedding more light on Russia’s purported disinformation drive… Read more »
Digital deceit: waging war with disinformation
There is nothing new about either fake news or Russian disinformation campaigns. Back in 1983, at the height of the cold war, an extraordinary story appeared in a little-known pro-Soviet… Read more »
Tunisian unrest symptomatic of healthy democratic evolution
Some view Tunisia’s recent demonstrations and the government’s response as a dire warning that the end of the country’s experiment with democracy is near, notes Safwan Masri, the author of… Read more »
Russia employing sharp power in Mexico’s elections
Russian meddling has recently become a fixture in Mexican politics too, analyst Maxim Trudolyubov writes for Newsweek. “They [Russians] are trying to create a world in which the electorates are… Read more »
Lost in transition? Ukraine’s Tunisia moment
As reforms stall in Ukraine, the tragic killing of a young activist could become a rallying cry for systemic change, notes analyst Diane Francis. The year for Ukrainians began… Read more »
West’s ‘geopolitical depression’ makes China model a ‘plausible alternative’?
Liberal democracies have less legitimacy than at any time since World War II, and most of their structural problems don’t appear fixable. Today’s strongest leaders show little interest in… Read more »
Democracy’s failure to challenge kleptocrats
With a little courage and imagination, Western policymakers could dry up the illicit funds that keep autocratic leaders in power and drive real, “home-grown” democratic reforms in authoritarian countries around… Read more »
The best way to combat Russian propaganda
Transparency is the best way to combat Russian propaganda, argues M. Todd Bennett, an associate professor of history at East Carolina University and the author of “One World, Big Screen:… Read more »
Liberal world order is ‘sick’: Davos highlights West’s geopolitical depression
The relative weakness of some Western leaders appearing at the World Economic Forum in Davos reflects the recent fragmentation of electoral support on which democratic leaders rely, unlike in more… Read more »