Abstract

Some pathologies of communication and information mediated by the very large online platforms, often considered factors of crisis or malfunctioning of democracy, on closer view can put at risk the stability of any legal system, and not only of those in which the democratic principle prevails. However, democratic systems are especially vulnerable to these issues due to some of their typical characteristics, even if they are external to the conceptual core of democracy: freedom of expression, association and business, representation, etc. In this essay, we conclude that endemic to democracies, in any of their declinations, is instead another more subtle and less treated evil: the possible hidden manipulation of the political-electoral consensus by the great oligopolists of the digital communication market, whose immense powers of influence of public opinion are still misunderstood and therefore unregulated