Readers' blog: Powerful have always controlled opinion

The power of social media in the manipulation of public opinion and in electioneering has been highlighted in various democracies recently, the most obvious example being the US.

An idea is being expressed that legislation is needed to curb social media’s power. But that involves some curtailing of the expression of opinions by the powerful and that is not going to be easy to achieve.

That it will not solve all problems is epitomised in this country by the pre-social media landscape, in which mainstream media had control of the organs of public-opinion formation.

It is a matter of history that one political grouping won all elections in the nearly quarter century between 1987 and 2011.

There was a change of government in the 1990s, but the then opposition got into government without an election and that was reversed at the subsequent election in 1997.

Democratic institutions do need to ‘regulate’ social media, but it would be a mistake to assume that that will solve the problem of the manipulation of power by those in a position to do so.

A Leavy

Sutton

Dublin