Debbie Ball interviewed about politics and social media

CAMRI PhD Researcher, Debbie Ball, recently spoke to The Guardian about politics and social media. The article from the Big Idea Series, explored the changing relationships between social media and politics over the last 20 years.

In the article, Ball notes that “We’re all … much more comfortable posting our views online.” She acknowledges, however, that writing about political issues can sometimes lead to dark places, funnelling users into a “whole ecosystem of bad actors spreading disinformation and political campaigning”. Most social media algorithms are programmed to optimise the spread of inflammatory content, “fuelling the maelstrom of online political debate and, despite what the dominant companies like Meta say, it’s not to champion freedom of speech, it’s all to encourage people to post more, create more content and to keep making money out of people’s data”.

The full article can be read on the Guardian website.