That’s just part of the problem, at the core the big issue is the new paradigm that these companies have imposed through their algorithms: the opinion that counts is the most popular. It’s not a coincidence if the raise of populisms goes hand by hand with the raise of social media as a mass phenomenon.

Democracy has become a competition to influence (or better manipulate) people, mostly through a perpetual orgy of gossip, sensation, scandals. We worry about those hijacking public opinion leveraging on the increasing discontent of the masses but we don’t worry about 90% of media being in the hands of just 6 corporations increasingly talking with one voice.

Shall we do like China and establish a massive army of censors? I wouldn’t be surprised to see that happening, it would create a lot of jobs in an increasingly jobless world, and since media talk with one voice they would find the way to justify it, as they justify all madness that can be convenient to power.

Our democracies are already fake because the thoughts and wills of those who live in such a media bubble cannot be free.

It’s difficult to find a way out from this dark pit and the ideas that come to my mind are very radical:

• Ban concentrations of media power: no entity should own more than 1% of media.
• Give basic income to all, and start from journalists. They are not really free nowadays, if they don’t write what they are expected to write they are out. As what matters is what is popular they are constantly pursuing gossip and sensation, mostly of the negative kind. Giving them enough to live no matter what they write would give new life and freedom to journalism as public service.
• Ban algorithms based on popularity. The opinion of 1 expert of a topic should count more than the opinion of 100o who know nothing about it but just follow prejudice and sensation or the mood media dictated to them.

Nothing I am proposing is easy and probably would take a revolution, which is inevitabile anyway. The fundamental question is: in the most prosperous and full of opportunities world ever how do we make sure everyone prosper and not just the wealthiest 1% while the remaining 99% are increasingly starving as jobs rapidly disappear or are devalued?

If the 1% who brainwash us through their media oligopoly actually cared about the people beyond their being providers of money and consent, perhaps people wouldn’t be so inclined to support any populist madness that come their way.

Our system must fall, it is inevitable as wealth inequality is reaching Ancient Egypt levels. I have little doubt that the destiny of companies like Facebook is to be expropriated in the name of the people, and I doubt it’s going to be a rational process because our system is designed to reduce to insignificance those who have more complex and elaborated thoughts (where are the intellectuals nowadays?) and reward what is most popular as to say what is more superficial and leverages on all that is low in humans (fear, hate, greed, pride gossip, sensation etc.).

I wish we could be more rational, and cultivate virtues like forgiveness, compassion, temperance and others, some of which are so alien to people of today that they would need to check them in the dictionary – had they any intellectual curiosity.

I don’t have hope in humans, it looks like we periodically need to face horror and destruction, to then rebuild, and then forget what led us to all that madness and do it again. But I have hope in the machines we build, perhaps surrendering to some mighty AI out of human control can elevate us from our deadly ignorance.