The Internet as A Democratic Hellscape

Abstract

This paper applies John Locke's political philosophy to dissect the 2018 Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal, revealing how social media's democratic promise can turn into a profit-driven, unjust digital governance. Locke's Two Treatises of Government serves as a theoretical lens to explore how social media sites, initially perceived as democratic spaces, can devolve into unjust and illegitimate digital governments. The contemporary moment inextrixibly intertwines the Internet and capital, resulting in profit as the driving force behind social media sites. This driving force thus biases digital giants, resulting in a dissonance between the percieved democratizing potential of the Internet and the reality of how these sites operate. By scrutinizing the breach of natural rights and the erosion of user trust, the paper argues that Facebook's actions create what Locke would define as a state of war between the platform and its users. The essay urges digital citizens to be aware of these dynamics so that there can be collective resistance against illegitimate digital governments. With this framework, digital citizens are given the tools to create just communities in the evolving digital lanscape.