If we’re serious about social cohesion, these big tech hate machines must be reined in

February 23, 2026 — 12:30pm

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In a California court, tech billionaires have been struggling to refute claims that their social media platforms were designed to be addictive, despite growing evidence and the lived experience of millions suggesting otherwise. Specifically, there are concerns about “infinite scroll”, “autoplay” and “dangerous and addictive algorithms”.

As we await this landmark decision, we should also consider how these products have become a threat to democracy, social cohesion, and freedom of information, and begin to consider remedies to this.

At first, social media challenged the oligarchical, profit-motivated, self-censored legacy media system by providing an alternative and equal platform for voices. But now, the biggest social media companies are similarly owned by a handful of tech billionaires, and they control the digital infrastructure in which we communicate, organise and access information in an unprecedented way.

While the algorithm may give the illusion of freedom, the conditions it operates on distorts access to information and inhibits free speech. Content may not be removed completely, but private entities now mediate public and interpersonal discourse through their own set of rules that prioritise, withhold, promote, and censor, based on the desires of big tech. These desires may morph based on ideologies or profit incentives, but never with transparency.

This becomes both a threat to democracy, and social cohesion. Echo chambers have been established, and while the algorithm largely keeps us within them, it tokenistically shows snippets of content........

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