The Digital Services Act: not enough to protect democracy against populism

An essential goal of the Digital Services Act is to mitigate democratic risks posed by large online platforms. It aims to curb manipulation and misinformation and to protect fundamental civic rights, such as freedom of expression, media freedom, pluralism and protection against discrimination. However, the DSA is insufficient to protect public deliberation – the heart of democracy – against populism. Populism is an anti-democratic political programme which is partly facilitated by digital media. The DSA is rightly hesitant to limit the freedom of speech for politicians, but this severely restricts what it can do. It is essential to acknowledge the limitations of the DSA in this respect to develop complementary policies to fight populism.

Digital media facilitate populism in at least three respects. First, by accelerating the production and consumption of news, New Social Media (NSM) make careful fact-checking impossible and feed forms of impatience that are hard to reconcile with democratic procedures. Second, NSM plays into our psychological bias, favouring emotionally charged news over more bland and complex information. Third, NSM does away with gatekeepers and editorial filters, guaranteeing civic norms of democratic deliberation. These three factors pave the road for populism.

The problem is that these democratic risks are intrinsically linked to features of NSM that are positively related to the democratic process. Acceleration allows the public to respond quickly, in real-time if need be, to problems and threats. Democratic activity/citizenship can also be enhanced by appealing to emotions; democracy should be passionate. The absence of gatekeepers allows otherwise marginalised voices direct access to the public agora. The so-called bubbles can enhance democracy by offering easy entrance points for people occupying marginal positions, who can then build their confidence and power in a safe environment.