Infocracia

Digitization is advancing inexorably. Stunned by the frenzy of communication and information, we feel powerless in the face of the tsunami of data that unleashes destructive and distorting forces. Today digitization also affects the political sphere and causes serious disruptions in the democratic process. Electoral campaigns are information wars waged with every conceivable technical and psychological means. Bots -fake automated social media accounts- spread fake news and hate speech and influence the formation of public opinion. Troll armies intervene in campaigns by propping up disinformation. Conspiracy theories and propaganda dominate the political debate. Through psychometrics and digital psychopolitics, attempts are made to influence electoral behavior and avoid conscious decisions. Byung-Chul Han's new essay describes the crisis of democracy and attributes it to the structural change of the public sphere in the digital world. He also gives this phenomenon a name: infocracy.