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from the twitter-is-known-for-being-a-place-of-kindness-and-intelligence dept.
El Reg reports in a story that at least some people seem to think so.
Twitter trolls are undermining what political analysts had predicted would be a new form of responsive democracy.
Far from being an opportunity to engage directly with voters, researchers found that the more politicians tried to actively interact with their constituents, the more abuse they faced.
The eggheads, based in Europe and the US, analyzed just under 800,000 tweets from over 650 politicians based in Germany, Greece, Spain and the UK and found that the percentage of "impolite" tweets directed at them went from 8 per cent when they did nothing to an extraordinary 40 per cent when they actively tried to engage with voters.
If that wasn't depressing enough, the paper notes that the level of abuse increases almost exactly proportionally to how engaging people's messages are. The more they asked to hear people's views, the more those views were insulting.
"Most politicians who post anything quickly become subject to constant personal abuse," the paper, published in the Journal of Communication, notes.
Such is the level of unpleasantness and vehemence that most politicians simply give up and use their Twitter accounts to simply broadcast messages rather than seek input or discussion. Something that, ironically, has led to them being criticized for ignoring voters and not being sufficiently open or engaging.
My take: The egg heads may be right on this, however there is nothing inherently undemocratic in people publishing libelous and slanderous crap about politicians. It's been happening in American democracy for at least as long as the republic has been in existence. Some of the things said about Thomas Jefferson when he was running for president were worse than what we were subjected to during this election cycle.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 14 2016, @09:28PM
I'm gonna have to pause you there, the reason our politics are so toxic is due to massive propaganda. Small-ish differences are hyped out of control, there is a very real agenda to pit the people against each other. The media keeps this going, so now we're a population of highly reactionary people.
No civil discourse is allowed, and any time it is tried some loud mouths get up and ruin it. The people in power, the ones running the same agenda through the DNC and GOP, don't give a shit about anything other than favorable policies. Turn the people against each other with issues that don't affect corporate financials, and bam, easiest win ever.
You are the leader of false flags and bulshittery around here, sure some people hold the extreme views you espouse, but they are not a majority by any measure. I can only hope people are waking up to the massive manipulation that has turned them into zombie idiots (on both sides of the aisle).