الحجاج عن طريق الخوارزميات: كيف تقوض البنية التحتية لوسائل التواصل الاجتماعي أسس الخطاب العام روبير كيلروي In الحجاج والمجتمع: من أجل حوار بناء وخطاب بلا عنف

This article sets out to argue that social media is affecting the foundations of public discourse in western societies not at the level of content (questions around censorship, hate speech, misinformation, data privacy, etc.) but at the level of form: through the insidious (‘viral’) spread of its internal infrastructure into the political-ethical fabric of the social field. The paper is divided into two parts, with two central propositions being defended. First, I argue that the so-called “crisis in democracy” currently unfolding in some western societies (such as the UK and the USA) is, fundamentally, a crisis of public discourse, an erosion of the essential structures of argumentation. Second, I argue that this process of erosion is rooted in the internal mechanics of social media, an algorithmic architecture which neutralizes and, ultimately, nullifies the free and reasoned exchange of ideas.