More and more, political life in Latin America is playing out on social media. What are the implications for democracy? Recent elections in Argentina, Brazil, El Salvador, and Mexico show that social media can help to elevate political outsiders and spread sophisticated misinformation. Survey data show that while social-media users are more supportive than others of democratic principles, they have more negative views of their political systems. While there have been important innovations in combating misinformation, policy makers must also focus on the underlying conditions that are the fodder for social media’s ill effects: political polarization and deepening public distrust of democratic institutions.
About the Authors
Noam Lupu
Noam Lupu is associate professor of political science and associate director of LAPOP Lab at Vanderbilt University.
Latin America has not been witnessing a general trend toward authoritarianism, but accountability—whether horizontal, vertical, or both—has suffered in some countries, and at times has done so as a side-effect…
Despite the presidential victory of Ollanta Humala, Peru’s 2011 elections had some continuities with the 2006 contest. The electorate is dividing along regional and socioeconomic rather than partisan lines.
