The Ideal of Pluralism and the Problem of Online Polarisation. Four Scenarios and Five Proposals for the Future.

According to Berlin, Rawls and Arendt, a democratic system should be characterised by a public language through which to communicate. However, digital platforms lead to individuals closing themselves off in echo chambers and filter bubbles. In this paper we attempt to model some scenarios in order to determine the potential consequences of the development of digital platforms on democratic pluralism. The driving forces are the polarisation on the Internet and the possible role of liberal democratic institutions in promoting "reasonable" pluralism. In the final section, we suggest five possible actions that could mitigate the problem of online polarisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]