Resumen

GUARDADO, Sergio Martín. Disinformation, hate and polarization in the digital environment: segregation of the public sphere and effects on democracy. Estud. derecho inf. [online]. 2023, n.15, pp.3-30.  Epub 08-Nov-2024. ISSN 2594-0082.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iij.25940082e.2023.15.17469.

More than half a century ago, the german philosopher and political scientist Jürgen Habermas took us into the “public sphere” through the theory of communicative action. Following his approaches, and from a constitutional perspective, we delve into the new form of communication that social networks represent. Based on an analysis of the structure of communication (transmitter-channel-receiver) and its transformations, we can confirm that the large network operators and the algorithmic technology they use interfere with the exercise of freedom of information and the right to be informed, subtracting the personal autonomy that characterizes both rights of immunity before the State. This new communicational ecosystem leads to consolidate polarization, hatred, and the exclusion of those who are different, affecting pluralism as an essential value in democracy. Arises in an area in which there is no regulation other than contractualism and the unilateralism of the platforms, the connections between misinformation, hatred, and polarization reign. Meanwhile, the State does not intervene or shows itself to be powerless, authentic private powers begin to exercise the censorship that the Constitution prohibits, through fact-checking and self-regulation. Faced with this situation, approaches are introduced to understand the phenomenon and certain guidelines are proposed that should guide the legislative policy that eventually aims to regulate the phenomenon described. The common thread of all the work goes through preserving pluralism and personal autonomy in the face of the search for truth.

Palabras llave : Disinformation; polarization; democracy; digital environment; social networks.

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