The Privatised Public Sphere

The public sphere metaphor was always contested and this continues in the digital realm. While “old” debates on access, inequality and power continue, the so-called platform society has taken concerns about power and commercialisation to a new level. The idea of the public sphere is closely tied to fundamental rights and freedoms, and as such the public sphere metaphor reminds us that these guarantees are not what they used to be. A privatised public sphere essentially lacks the democratic guarantees that constituted it.