TY - JOUR

T1 - Social Media Is a Threat for Democracy! A Political Perspective for Analysing and Diminishing Harm

AU - Castello, Itziar

AU - Colleoni, Elanor

AU - Scherer, Andreas Georg

AU - Trittin-Ulbrich, Hannah

PY - 2026/12/22

Y1 - 2026/12/22

N2 - Social media platforms, once hailed as potential champions of dialogue, have evolved into commodified spaces in which their business models incentivize hate speech, misinformation, polarization, and the political fragmentation of society, benefiting corporate and political elites while eroding democracy. The existing market and technological conceptualizations of social media platforms offer only partial analysis of and solutions to these issues. This paper advances a political perspective grounded in deliberative democracy, arguing that social media companies are political actors responsible for maintaining a well-functioning public sphere. We argue that transforming social media platforms into true facilitators of democratic discourse requires enhancing their deliberative capacity. Beyond the capacities of the public sphere suggested by the market and technology perspectives (1) transparency and accountability and (2) openness and inclusiveness, we propose that fostering deliberative capacity also requires (3) conduciveness to argumentation and (4) consequentiality. We thus contribute to understanding how management theories can explain and address current threats to democracy.

AB - Social media platforms, once hailed as potential champions of dialogue, have evolved into commodified spaces in which their business models incentivize hate speech, misinformation, polarization, and the political fragmentation of society, benefiting corporate and political elites while eroding democracy. The existing market and technological conceptualizations of social media platforms offer only partial analysis of and solutions to these issues. This paper advances a political perspective grounded in deliberative democracy, arguing that social media companies are political actors responsible for maintaining a well-functioning public sphere. We argue that transforming social media platforms into true facilitators of democratic discourse requires enhancing their deliberative capacity. Beyond the capacities of the public sphere suggested by the market and technology perspectives (1) transparency and accountability and (2) openness and inclusiveness, we propose that fostering deliberative capacity also requires (3) conduciveness to argumentation and (4) consequentiality. We thus contribute to understanding how management theories can explain and address current threats to democracy.

KW - Management studies

U2 - 10.1111/joms.70053

DO - 10.1111/joms.70053

M3 - Journal articles

JO - Journal of Management Studies

JF - Journal of Management Studies

SN - 0022-2380

ER -