We thought the internet was going to build democracy. Instead, it has become the most effective tool ever to undermine democracy – without us noticing because we are all busy with our mobile phones.
Digitalization has not only changed how we communicate; it changes the very conditions for having an enlightened, independent and equal society. And when local communities deteriorate, it undermines democracy.
1. Attention is being privatized
Before, political parties, newspapers, and organizations fought for our time in a limited public space. Today, global technology companies fight for every microsecond of our consciousness – and they are winning. The algorithms are designed to maximize engagement, not truth or understanding. The result is that rational political debate is drowning in rage, cat videos, and conspiracy theories. We have an attention market where the highest bidder (read: the most extreme voice) wins. Public opinion is no longer formed in parliament or on the square, but in California and Shenzhen (China).
2. The public discourse is fragmenting
There is no longer one common public. We live in thousands of closed echo chambers where algorithms feed us exactly what we already believe – only a little stronger. When friends, neighbours and colleagues never encounter the same news, facts or arguments, the basis for a shared understanding of reality disappears. Without shared facts, there is no shared policy. Democracy requires that we can disagree about solutions – not about reality itself.
3. Power becomes invisible and irresponsible
Who really governs Norway in 2025? Is it the Stortinget? The government? Or are there five or six global technology companies that determine which issues are trending, which politicians get attention, and which voices are amplified or silenced? These companies are not elected by anyone, cannot be held accountable by anyone, and operate according to business models that reward division and polarization. Yet they have more power over the public conversation than BBC ever had – without being subject to a single paragraph in the constitution or the Broadcasting Act. Even MI6 are now issuing warning about the power to the big tech companies.
4. Citizens are reduced to data extraction
In a well-functioning democracy, the citizen is an independent human being with rights and dignity. In the digital economy, the citizen is a target for predictive behaviour management. Every keystroke, every swipe, every pause in a video is analysed to predict – and manipulate – future behaviour. The 2016 and 2022 elections showed us what happens when micro-targeted propaganda meets voters who believe they have made a free choice. Cambridge Analytica was just the beginning.
5. Trust is eroding
Democracy is based on trust: trust in institutions, in the media, in each other. Digitalization has created a trust vacuum. Deepfakes, bot accounts, coordinated disinformation campaigns and algorithmically reinforced suspicion mean that we no longer know what – or who – we can believe. When trust declines, the appeal of the strong leader who “talks like most people” and promises to clean up “the system” increases. History shows where that ends, Hitler is a well-known example. What we see in the United States is another terrible example. When Trump was signed as President in January 2025 all the tech leaders stood by his side.
6. Politicians have abdicated
The most frightening thing is the silence from elected officials. While tech companies are building infrastructure that is reshaping society in real time, politicians continue to discuss privacy as if it were just about protecting vacation photos on Facebook. We lack a digital constitution, a public digital infrastructure, and the political courage to challenge the new concentrations of power. Instead, everything is left to the “market” and “innovation”.
We are in the middle of quiet revolution where rules of democracy are gradually being replaced by algorithmic rule. It will not happen with tanks on the streets, but with an update to the terms of service at 3:00 a.m. one night.
We need:
– A public, decentralized digital infrastructure.
– Ban on micro-targeted political advertising
– Algorithmic transparency and democratic control with recommendation systems
– A new enlightenment era where media and information knowledge becomes as fundamental as reading and writing
If not, history books will write about how in the 2020s we voluntarily handed over the keys to democracy to a few tech companies – because it was so convenient to have an app for everything.
There is still time to turn things around. But the clock is ticking fast. And it is ticking inside a server room we do not own.