With social media destroying elite informational monopolies, established institutions no longer have the privilege to control public conversation and therefore acquire an obligation to participate constructively in it rather than try to reinstate centralized gatekeeping. Engagement means debating, rebutting, and competing in the open forum while preserving procedural norms, not returning to pre‑internet censorship by elites.
— If institutions adopt a 'duty to engage' instead of seeking to re‑establish gatekeepers, policy debates about platform regulation, deplatforming, press strategy, and civic education shift from enforcement to capacity‑building and public persuasion.
Dan Williams
2025.11.30
100% relevant
Dan Williams’ Nov 2025 essay argues exactly this: the loss of gatekeeper privilege creates an obligation for the liberal establishment to participate in social‑media discourse rather than try to suppress it.
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