大象传媒

It all started with a crazy idea to realise a hippie dream of building a 鈥済lobal consciousness鈥�. The plan was to build a connected world, where everyone could access everyone and everything all the time; to overthrow the old gatekeepers and set information free.

But social media didn鈥檛 turn out that way. Instead of setting information free 鈥� a new digital elite conquered the world and turned themselves into the most powerful people on the planet.

Now, they get to decide what billions of us see every day. They can amplify you. They can delete you. Their platforms can be used to coordinate social movements and insurrections. A content moderator thousands of miles away can change your life. What does this mean for democracy 鈥� and our shared reality?

Jamie Bartlett traces the story of how and why social media have become the new information gatekeepers, and what the decisions they make mean for all of us.

New episodes of The Gatekeepers are released on Mondays. If you鈥檙e in the UK, listen to the latest episodes of The Gatekeepers, first on 大象传媒 Sounds: bbc.in/3Ui661u