Digital Democracy and Social Media: Between Participation, Disinformation, and Accountability in the 21st Century

Abstract

The expansion of social media has profoundly transformed the dynamics of citizen participation, political communication, and institutional accountability, giving rise to what is now known as digital democracy. This article presents a theoretical-comparative review of how digital platforms reconfigure the public sphere, balancing the potential for citizen empowerment with the risks associated with disinformation, polarization, and algorithmic manipulation. Eight recent studies are analyzed, addressing experiences in Korea, Africa, Brazil, Nigeria, the Middle East, and Europe, while articulating Fuchs’s contributions on the digital public sphere, critical communication theory, and the Contextual New Medium Theory model. The findings reveal that social networks operate as ambivalent arenas: they foster visibility, deliberation, and citizen production—as seen in cases such as Korean feminism or Nigerian student participation—but also amplify surveillance, astroturfing, and informational inequality. The study concludes that digital democracy requires governance and transparency frameworks that regulate algorithms and strengthen institutional accountability.