12179: Is Social Media a Threat to Democracy? Examining Political, Market and Technological Lenses

Saturday, July 26, 2025

08:30 - 10:00 CEST (GMT+2)

Location: Bella Center: Hall B- B2-m8

Session Type: PDW (workshop)
Orientation: Teaching,Practice,International,Research
Shareable link: https://cdmcd.co/qdkQKE

Organizer(s)

IC

Itziar Castelló

Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), City, U. of London, United Kingdom
EC

Elanor Colleoni

-, Italy

Panelist(s)

AS

Andreas Georg Scherer

U. of Zurich, Switzerland
HT

Hannah Trittin

Leuphana U. Lüneburg, Germany
CC

Carmelo Cennamo

Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
JK

Jovana Karanovic

Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus U., Netherlands
JV

Jean-Philippe Vergne

UCL - University of London, United Kingdom

Social media platforms have fundamentally transformed communication and social interactions. Initially hailed as tools for enhancing democracy and public deliberation, recent research has highlighted the potential threats social media pose to democratic societies. This PDW aim to spark a debate within management studies and beyond regarding social media's impact on democracy by examining the question: Is the very nature of social media platforms inherently threatening to the integrity and functionality of the public sphere, and consequently, the persistence of democracies? This PDW presents three distinct perspectives—political, market, and technological—to critically examine the roles and responsibilities of social media platforms in endangering democratic values in the digital age. While all perspectives recognize social media as powerful technologies affecting businesses and citizens in market societies, they differ in their assessments of the extent to which social media threatens democracy and the potential solutions to mitigate harm to democratic institutions.