Social media design options to support democratic discussions
Improving social media for democratic discourse
Computers and SocietyHuman-Computer Interaction
Summary
Current social media platforms mostly focus on keeping people engaged and making money from ads, which can lead to problems like polarization and misinformation. The authors look at ways these platforms could be changed to better support healthy political conversations and group decision-making. They suggest different tools and features like better control over what users see, fact-checking help, ways to encourage respectful talk, and systems that reward thoughtful participation. Their ideas can be mixed and matched to create digital spaces that promote democracy rather than just clicks.
What this means in practice
- •For social media platform designers: Develop new social media features that help users access diverse viewpoints and encourage respectful political discussions.
- •For online community managers: Implement moderation and reputation tools that promote evidence-based dialogue and reduce misinformation in online groups.
A position paper. It proposes an approach and reports no results.
Authors
Fan Cheng, Amirhossein Farzmahdi, Pinyuan Feng, Kedar Garzón Gupta, Trenton Jerde, Nikolaus Kriegeskorte, Zi Qi Liow, Akihito Maruya, Savannah Smith, Patrick Stinson, JohnMark Taylor
Abstract
Social media have expanded opportunities for communication and political participation, but today's dominant platforms are optimized primarily for engagement and advertising revenue, contributing to concerns about polarization, misinformation, social isolation, and loss of civility. We explore how social media might instead be deliberately designed to support democratic discourse, collective deliberation, and collective intelligence. Drawing on literature across computer science, psychology, political science, and related fields, we present a modular collection of mechanisms that could be implemented individually or in combination. These include user-controlled and open recommender systems, tools for exposure to diverse perspectives, new forms of cognitive and epistemic feedback, collaborative and AI-assisted fact-checking, privacy and visibility controls, mechanisms for improving civility and evidentiary integrity, and reputation systems that reward high-quality participation. The proposals are intended both as a practical menu of design possibilities and as a starting point for broader interdisciplinary discussion about digital public spaces designed around democratic values rather than engagement alone.