Analyzing the Positive and Negative Impacts of IT on Democracy

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between Information Technology (IT) and democracy. It begins by defining democracy and then delves into the significant changes IT has brought about, both positive and negative. The essay highlights how IT has facilitated communication, increased access to information, and influenced political campaigns. However, it also addresses the ethical issues arising from the spread of misinformation, data privacy concerns, and the potential for manipulation. The analysis examines the impact of IT on literacy rates, government policies, and the role of social media in shaping public discourse. The essay concludes by summarizing the challenges and impacts of IT on democracy, emphasizing the need for ethical considerations and regulations to ensure a healthy democratic environment. It also discusses how political parties are using IT for electoral gains and spreading false information to influence the public, which can have a negative impact on the community. Furthermore, the essay touches on the misuse of IT by governments for personal benefits and the ethical implications of sharing personal information.

ESSAY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Key changes that have taken places.............................................................................................1
Positive and negative impact on democracy of IT advances and threats....................................2
Ethical issues...............................................................................................................................3
Analysis of issues........................................................................................................................4
CONCLSUION................................................................................................................................5
REREFENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
The Democracy is the form of government in which the common people hold political
power and they can rule either directly or representatives (Entman and Usher., 2018). There are
many countries who are democratic, and they run the election in their country and party who
won the election take the power of whole country, and they run the government of the public
welfare. Leader of the country is known as President of the country, and they give all the others
and lead the country and make polices for the country.
This report will analyse the impact of democracy on the Information technology and ho
what are the impact on our life. It will conclude the analysis of the Issues faced by the IT and this
report will also include the benefits to the IT from the democracy. This report will also discuss
about how democratic parties take advantages if the Information technology for their personal
agenda.
MAIN BODY
Key changes that have taken places
Information technology have brought various kinds of changes in last few decades. These
changes have impacted democracy in many ways both positively and negatively. Continuous
innovation and changes within IT are bringing change within democracy of people. These
changes have brought useful information at finger. Modern IT technology has paved a way for
multi-functional devices like smartphones, social networking applications and many more
(Amelin, Channov and Polyakova, 2016). These changes and revolution in IT have made lives of
people easier, faster, better, and more fun. It has majorly brought changes within way of
communication and exchanging information. Advancement in technology has made it easier to
communicate with each other much more easily and with the help of various kinds of
technologies any kind of information can be exchanges with anyone instantly regardless of their
locations. It has also brought changes within living lifestyle of people of all age group by
providing them with opportunities of increasing their safety, mobility and connectivity.
Advancement in IT has increased till such an extent that it is being used by almost all the people
including working individuals, government and many more (Tucker and et. al., 2017). One of the
major changes that has occurred because of IT is excessive usage of social media. Usage of
social media has grown till such an extent that today most of the individuals uses social media in
order to share their personal experiences, achievements or to communicate with others. These
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changes have directly impacted on democracy. Not only this, these changes have also led to
increase in IT threats. It has increased vulnerabilities of theft of personal information or
increasing influence of political parties on people because of political campaigns and many
more. It has been observed that many political parties are using IT technology at the time of
election in order to influence people and gain their precious votes (Schapals, Bruns and McNair,
eds., 2018). Other than this it has also been observed that many people post most of their
personal life experience without thinking of threats associated with security of their personal
information. According to a research it was identified that there are various kinds of changes that
have been brought because of IT which has directly impacted upon democracy. Some of these
changes are positive and some of these changes are negative.
Positive and negative impact on democracy of IT advances and threats
IT advances and threats are continuously influencing Democracy. Changes within IT has
brought various kinds of threats and advantages that will influence the future generation and the
way they will govern themselves. Advancement in IT is continuously increasing attraction of
people because of which democracy is changing. It is a positive change especially for political
parties as it has provided them with a platform to interact with people and reach to their target
audience. Democracy is not just about voting for one’s favourite leader but it is about the way in
which citizens have freedom of communication and need to govern themselves. One of the main
positive impact on democracy that has been brought because of IT advances is that it has made is
much easier for people to increase their knowledge, update their knowledge with latest
information and enhance their literacy rate (Ruijer, Grimmelikhuijsen and Meijer, 2017). IT
advancement has made it possible to increase overall literacy rate of a country. Government is
using IT in order to understand the way in which literacy is increased within citizens because of
internet as it will help them to further understand the ways in which government can use literacy
to strengthen democracy. Continuous advancement in technology also bring alterations within
political and governance process. Today most of the politicians uses all kinds of technological
platforms they can use to reach their target audience so that they can ensure their electoral
success. It has increased the threat of leakage of personal information of people which has
impact overall democracy as well. In order to control threats associated with change in IT and its
usage various kinds of legislations have been introduced by the government such as federal
privacy legislation, data privacy act and many more because of which has positively impacted
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upon the democracy of people as these legislation have made people realized the extent till
which they can use their as well as other information and ways in which they can make use of
technology (Prakoso, Putra and Kinanti, 2018). In a democratic country these laws are for all the
citizens of the country as in a democratic country government is accountable to the people and if
any kind of major issue occurs then government is the one who is answerable to people. So as a
result, it has brought changes within democracy of the people.
One of the main positive impact on democracy because of IT advancements has been
seen upon publishing, journalism and upon public discourse possible. IT has made it possible for
Media or publishing house to gather important information which is required to be shared with
the people. IT has made it possible for Journalist to analyse important data or information and
share it with public. It has also increased freedom for public as they can ask for any kind of
information easily. So, it can be said that it has some positive impact upon democracy of people,
publishing houses, journalist etc. It has also made it possible for people or organizations to
address large number of people in an easy and appropriate manner (Bertot, Jaeger and Nahon,
2020). IT advancements have successfully developed such a communication platform where it is
possible to reach and communicate with anyone from anywhere. It can also be said that IT has
made it easy for people to enjoy their democratic rights of information and communication in a
much better and enhanced manner. However, it has some negative impact upon democracy as
well. Due to increasing easy access of people to IT technology and availability of a platform to
share information it has become a bit difficult for to authenticate whether the information which
is shared or communicated is true or a lie. Many times, higher authorities or powerful people
made use of this IT advancement in order to influence people by spreading false information
which is impacting democracy in a negative manner. In order to maintain healthy democracy, it
is important to define some rules and regulations so that wealthy and powerful people do not use
this technology in a negative manner and do not use it as a platform to spread fake news or
information (Deb, Donohue and Glaisyer, 2017). It is important for focus on all the IT threats
that are associated with changes within technology or with advancement in IT so that negative
impact upon democracy can be reduced.
Ethical issues
Ethics majorly revolve around a concept of human morality. Advancement in technology
has increased impacted their democratic rights of communication and sharing information in
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many ways but it has creased some ethical issues as well because of which many people are
using this platform for unethical things which can also be said as using their democratic rights in
a negative manner. There are various kinds of ethical issues that are associated with changes
within IT which is indirectly impacting democracy (Amelin, Channov and Polyakova, 2016).
One of the main ethical issue identified from the above discussion is wrong use of IT technology
for spreading false information. It is one of the main ethical responsibility of everyone who uses
IT technology for whichever purpose i.e. not to spread information or data which is not true as it
is completely unethical to do so as it can influence other in a negative manner. Another ethical
issue identified from the above information is sharing of information. It is important for people
to understand what kind of information including personal, sensitive, private and common
information that should be shared with other. As it has negative impact of democracy. It is
completely unethical to share anyone’s personal or sensitive information with other without their
permission (Tucker and et. al., 2017). Easy access to IT technology has increase threat of sharing
personal or sensitive information with others unethically. It is important to focus on these ethical
issues as it can increase adverse impact on democracy. It can be related to positive and negative
rights framework in Ethics. People should restrain themselves from interfering with their actions.
However, in today’s democratic world people are not subjected to an action of another person i.e.
they can share any kind of information they like with anyone but is an ethical issue as due to this
freedom of communication people do not see whether they should share those information with
any one or not (Schapals, Bruns and McNair, eds., 2018). Positive right is an oblige action and
should be focused on by others i.e. they should check whether they are morally bound to do
something or not.
Analysis of issues
Democracy is most important thing for the country because it helps to run country
effectively and all the citizen of the country follow the rules of the government but there are
some issues which can be faced by the IT of the country. Information technology provide growth
to the economy and every company is using IT equipment in their business but nowadays
political parties are using It to run their campaign which is a big issue of the country (Nemitz.,
2018). Social media is also a part of the IT and Political parties are using the IF for the vote
banking. They are spreading wrong news and information about the opponent parties to win the
election which creates heat rate among the people for the community and many more this. IT is
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helpful in development of the country and provide boost to the economy. There is one county
where government have made some polices for the IT and used to manipulate the informative
data which is used by them to show wrong information to the public. Government of the
countries are using IT for their own personal benefits which is misuse of the information
technology (Ceron and Memoli., 2016). Government had made some polices to limit the
use of the IT in their country and which creates problem for the companies who are belonged to
the IT, and they are providing IT services to the people in their country polices creates problem
for them, and they can see losses in their business.
CONCLSUION
As per the report has been cover explained definition of the democracy and it has been
concluded the impact of democracy on the Information technology. This report has been briefly
explained the issues face by the Information technology due to the restriction on the Information
technology by the Democratic parties. This report also has been provided the benefits of the
democracy to the Information technology of the particular country and what are the polices made
for the IT and their impact on the IT companies both negative and positive impact.
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REREFENCES
Books and journals
Amelin, R., Channov, S. and Polyakova, T., 2016, June. Direct democracy: prospects for the use
of information technology. In International Conference on Digital Transformation and
Global Society (pp. 258-268). Springer, Cham.
Bertot, J., Jaeger, P. and Nahon, K., 2020, January. Introduction to the Minitrack on Challenged
Democracies: The Impact of Digital Government on Democracy and Democratic
Institutions. In Proceedings of the 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System
Sciences.
Ceron, A. and Memoli, V., 2016. Flames and debates: do social media affect satisfaction with
democracy?. Social indicators research.126(1). pp.225-240.
Deb, A., Donohue, S. and Glaisyer, T., 2017. Is Social Media a Threat to Democracy?.
Entman, R. M. and Usher, N., 2018. Framing in a fractured democracy: Impacts of digital
technology on ideology, power and cascading network activation. Journal of
Communication.68(2). pp.298-308.
Nemitz, P., 2018. Constitutional democracy and technology in the age of artificial
intelligence. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical
and Engineering Sciences.376(2133). p.20180089.
Prakoso, S., Putra, R. and Kinanti, N., 2018, August. 25. Syria Aftermath Information
Technology and Media after Democracy Crisis. In 5th International Conference on
Social and Political Sciences (IcoSaPS 2018). Atlantis Press.
Ruijer, E., Grimmelikhuijsen, S. and Meijer, A., 2017. Open data for democracy: Developing a
theoretical framework for open data use. Government Information Quarterly. 34(1).
pp.45-52.
Tucker, J.A., and et. al., 2017. From liberation to turmoil: Social media and democracy. Journal
of democracy. 28(4). pp.46-59.
Schapals, A.K., Bruns, A. and McNair, B. eds., 2018. Digitizing democracy. Routledge.
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