The rampage at Capitol Hill, in the US, on January 6 occurred in what The Guardian termed as “a chaotic, shocking, tragic and terrifying week”.
Watching the siege unfold in front of us as we stayed glued to our TV screens made us feel involved in what was taking place. We could not believe that such incidents were taking place in a democratic country like America without an adequate response from the security forces.
With Donald Trump, a populist outsider, as president, America was never in safe hands. Though what happened at Capitol Hill seemed spontaneous, a dangerous situation had been brewing for very long. It was the result of deceit, fake news, lies and the distortion of reality.
Never has the democratic world realised, so forcefully, the impact and influence of social media. Words matter and words uttered by influential leaders matter more. After Trump had been barred from Twitter, Mark Warner, a US senator from Virginia exclaimed: “An overdue step. But it is important to remember, this is much bigger than one person. It’s about an entire ecosystem that allows misinformation and hate to spread and fester unchecked”.
Freedom of speech and expression has its limits and should not be allowed to be practised unregulated. Throughout his four-year term, Trump had been attacking the media and inciting his followers against the establishment and correct practices. In The Guardian, researchers on media, politics and public policy, said, when commenting on what happened at the Capitol: “Today, what people believe to be the truth is complicated by the structure of new technologies like social media, which have accelerated and fragmented media spectacle into competing alternative realities.”
The authors argued: “Trump’s disinformation campaigns are a media spectacle, involving a stunning array of political operatives, media pundits, lawyers and influencers who, day to day, create, publish and share a cascade of lies and speculation across webspaces, cable news and radio all at once”.
Partisan propaganda can manipulate its followers to such an extent that fiction becomes fact. We are living in a post-truth era and deciphering fact from fiction is becoming more difficult. The manipulation of social media to spread false news is one of today’s biggest threats to democracy.
In his inaugural speech, President Joe Biden stressed: “We must reject a culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured.”
What we have witnessed in America makes us realise how important it is, even in western democracies, to have institutions and the judiciary working independently, effectively and efficiently for democracy to survive.
Unregulated social media poses a danger to democracy- Ray Azzopardi
Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, in their book How democracies die, point out that even well-designed constitutions cannot, by themselves, guarantee democracies. The authors show how there is need for unwritten norms like tolerance and forbearance to be practised to safeguard democracy. They emphasise that “mutual toleration and institutional forbearance are procedural principles – they tell politicians how to behave, beyond the bonds of law, to make our institutions function”.
To watch congress formally validate Biden’s victory on the day that it was being stormed is proof that in America, today, the rule of law is still effective and institutions still function well. Even though Trump exerted pressure on Vice President Mike Pence to interfere with the certification of Biden’s victory, Pence followed the constitution rather than Trump.
Though democracy is ‘government by the people, for the people and of the people’ it is important for citizens to elect people of integrity to govern.
In the presidential campaign, Biden said that Trump is not fit to serve and is one of the most incompetent US presidents ever. This makes one ponder on the responsibility of electors.
To elect populists who are guided by emotions and selfish interests rather than the common good does not augur well for democracy. The exercise of suffrage requires maturity and foresight. Educating citizens on the common good and good governance helps in electing people of integrity.
What happened at Capitol Hill must be taken seriously by all who have democracy at heart. We have seen how unregulated social media poses a danger to democracy.
Let us heed what The Guardian wrote: “Let this be a lesson to tech companies: when disinformation is left to fester, it infects the whole produce.”
Yes, democracy is at stake. We cannot take it for granted. As Levitsky and Ziblatt contend: “Previous generations of Europeans and Americans made extraordinary sacrifices to defend our democratic institutions against powerful external threats. Our generation, which grew up taking democracy for granted, now faces a different task: we must prevent it from dying from within.”
Ray Azzopardi is a retired headmaster.