Liberal democracy, as a historical achievement that combined the principle of popular sovereignty with the protection of individual rights and the guarantee of the rule of law, is currently undergoing a profound test. International indicators record a continuous decline, while populist and far-right formations find ground to strengthen themselves.

The causes of the crisis are multifaceted and rooted in structural, political, economic, and cultural developments. However, the problem is exacerbated by the fact that democracy now has to operate under conditions of "platformization" of the public sphere, within which the terms of political expression and the shaping of public opinion are radically restructured.

On social media, which dominates our digital world, rational arguments are often overshadowed by the power of images, emotional stimulation, and the compression of time. Algorithmic manipulation, the dissemination of "fake news," misinformation, hate speech, as well as phenomena like "filter bubbles" and "echo chambers," paint a dystopian picture.

Tech giants have become decisive oppressive mechanisms, as they control the terms of public discourse through their algorithms and artificial intelligence models, regulating the flow of information and collective expression, managing access to knowledge, and activating mechanisms of digital surveillance, recording, analyzing, and sometimes predicting user behaviors in the online space.

Artificial intelligence and social media are becoming tools of power accumulation, influence, and shaping public opinion, gradually establishing a new form of algorithmic hegemony that threatens to reshape the institutional foundations of democracy. The progression of mass media into the era of artificial intelligence, the development of AI and language models, the ways in which algorithms dominate, and how democracy ultimately recedes are among the issues explored in this book.