Algorithm design and platform models fuel fractured realities, as per JRC report

A new Joint Research Centre report says the digital information space is becoming more fragmented, making it harder for audiences to find common ground on what is true or false and posing risks to democracy in the EU and other democracies.

According to the report, the growing digitalisation of the information space and the use of algorithms to influence what people see online are contributing to polarisation, declining trust in governing institutions, and what it describes as ‘fractured realities’. The report says these dynamics divide society into opposing camps and threaten the shared sense of reality on which democracy relies.

The study identifies three main challenges: technologies optimised to exploit human cognition, platforms’ business models, and geopolitics. It says users increasingly consume information passively through algorithmic feeds, a pattern described as the ‘News Finds Me’ perception, while platform design and business incentives encourage engagement with negative, emotional, or conflict-driven content.

The report also includes examples that, it says, show how foreign-controlled platforms have used algorithms to further their own interests, which could in turn fuel extremist narratives. It argues that fighting misinformation alone is not enough and points to a broader environment in which politicians, media outlets, influencers, and citizens can co-create curated versions of reality.

The report says the EU has an opportunity to strengthen digital democratic resilience through digital sovereignty, business model change, greater user autonomy online, and alternative public spaces, both online and offline, free from the attention economy. It says the findings will inform the European Commission’s work on resilient democracies, including through the European Democracy Shield, alongside the Digital Services Act.

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