‘Algorithmic Chaos’: Power Becomes Untouchable if Truth Becomes Optional

Eliot Higgins

The conditions that have led to what’s happening in the US today exist in democracies around the world. They’re an inevitable outcome of our collective failure to adapt to fundamental changes in the information ecosystem on which our democracies were originally built.

We built 20th Century democracies on the assumption that truth could be verified, public discourse could be deliberated, and those in power could be held accountable. But the system those assumptions relied on – gatekeepers, shared facts, institutional trust – are in decline.

In its place is an algorithmic chaos where every citizen is a broadcaster, every feed a battleground, and every truth contestable. We didn’t design for this. We didn’t adapt in time. And now the cracks are widening.