Social media platforms simulate a public sphere they now merely exploit.

Evidence

The rules of engagement are nonnegotiable, the software is a black box, and the whole thing relies on centralized, company-owned servers whose terms of service are the same for everyone everywhere. This “commons” only feels like a commons. As Oliver Leistert puts it in “The Revolution Will Not Be Liked,” for social media companies, “the public sphere is an historically elapsed phase from the twentieth century they now exploit for their own interests by simulating it.” — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 580

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s broader critique of attention capitalism and to Milgrom’s work on how institutions structure interaction. — connects to: Platform liability, not competition law, fixes public-sphere damage. — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 48; Social media’s fragmentation and boundary-dissolution combine to undermine the national public sphere’s integrating power — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 35; Social media may be changing citizens’ perception of the public sphere itself — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 43 (+5 more)