Digitalisation offers new opportunities for citizens to inform themselves about politically relevant topics, engage with political actors, and enables new forms of collective action. However, digital environments also present new opportunities for the manipulation of opinion formation, intergroup conflicts, and radicalisation processes. This theme explores both the opportunities and challenges to democratic integrity in the digital realm. For example, the integrity and security of online electoral processes, as well as online information systems in general, are under threat from strategic disinformation, and even unintentional misinformation can affect citizens of all age groups. Researchers at the DDC also examine, for instance, the influence of elite behaviour in digital campaigning, extremist online communication, and the impact of online harassment on democratic participation. Research in these topics informs the development and evaluation of strategies to safeguard democratic processes in the digital age, protect public trust in democratic institutions, and foster democratic resilience overall.
At DDC, we have a range of ongoing projects linked to this research theme:
- Citizens, Digitalisation, and AI (CDAI)
- Trust and News Authenticity
- Assessing a Non-manipulative Social Media: A Human Rights Approach
- Microtargeting of Danish Voters
- Explainable Internet Data flows (X-IDF)
- SafeChilDe
- High Choice Platform Environments and the Spreading of Intolerance