In today’s attention-fractured society, policymaking is increasingly happening in the glare of trending hashtags and viral posts rather than in sober committee rooms. The global political arena has become a Twitter timeline and an Instagram feed, where the clamorous buzz of social media drowns out every sincere deliberation.

Across the world, leaders now scramble to respond to whatever is “trending" that morning. Indeed, “the power of a viral post, tweet or video can shift public opinion, drive movements and even shape policies". This dynamic is warping priorities and turning governance into reactive performance theatre guided more by optics than substance.

Nuanced debates or long-term strategies do not set the agenda; instead, policies are increasingly decided by the viral mood of the nation. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt observes that social media has morphed into an “outrage machine," spreading anger and toxicity — a machine that policymakers feel compelled to ride. The result? A shallow, short-attention-span approach to governing that prizes retweets, reposts over reason, and clicks over consensus, eroding the foundations of democratic decision-making. Shifting it to a social media mob that moves from outrage to outrage.

In an era of Twitter storms and Google trends, what gets attention dictates what gets acted upon. Elected officials and bureaucrats monitor social media as closely as opinion polls, ever wary of becoming the next target of an online uproar. In many democracies, a single viral hashtag can catapult an issue from obscurity to urgency overnight. A case in point: when the #MeToo movement swept across the U.S., India, and beyond, it didn’t just raise awareness — it forced tangible responses. Bollywood moguls, politicians, and corporate leaders faced consequences as allegations surfaced in India’s #MeToo wave, leading to resignations and even new workplace policies. A hashtag can indeed spark action.

Yet, policies don’t always change just because a hashtag went viral. Without real-world follow-through, online outrage risks becoming mere “slacktivism" — feel-good clicking without impact. Tech critic Evgeny Morozov famously warned that “slacktivism is… dedicated activists’ energy wasted on approaches less effective than the alternatives". In other words, viral moments can be a catalyst, but they are no substitute for the grind of actual policymaking.

Nonetheless, governments can hardly ignore the sway of social media fury. A Twitter-driven movement distorted public policy in India during the 2020-21 farmers’ protests. When foreign influencers pushed the farmers’ grievances, with hashtags like #FarmersProtest trending worldwide, distorting the voices on the ground. A small set of farmers supported by Canadian and American lobbyists used live updates on Facebook and Instagram to go viral on social media platforms and were helped by global celebrity activists like Rihanna and Greta Thunberg, who pushed the agenda of global lobbyists. A social media mob pressured the government to repeal the farm laws, a stunning example of sustained global activism bringing down a reform process.

Policy debates these days feel less like deliberations and more like theatre on a social media stage. In many countries, leaders have effectively become social media influencers, measuring success in likes, shares, and trend metrics. They craft pronouncements for maximum viral impact, tailoring soundbites to fit a 280-character tweet or a 15-second video. Governance is becoming a performance art.

No one epitomised this public policy via social media better than former reality TV star and now U.S. President Donald Trump, who has his own social media platform, Truth Social, where he has converted the Oval Office into a video studio. Where the........

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