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Social Networking Sites (SNS) have shown great power to affect political outcomes around the world. The uprising in Tunisia that started the Arab Spring is a perfect example of the far reaching power of Twitter and Facebook which protesters used to organize (Shirky, 2013). As great as SNS tools are for politics, we as a society can do much better.

The “filter bubble” is a well-known problem in our currently consumer tailored online experiences. Google, Yahoo, and Facebook are examples of organizations many of us rely on for our searches and exposures to feeds from news sources and peers, but these organizations moderate our search results based on our history of activity online. While this has convenient advantages in terms of helping us get what we want out of our searches, particularly for purchasing goods and services, it has the adverse effect of hiding the full breadth of unfiltered online content from us. In an interview with Lynn Parramore (2010) of the Atlantic, internet activist Eli Pariser says “Since Dec. 4, 2009, Google has been personalized for everyone. So when I had two friends this spring Google “BP,” one of them got a set of links that was about investment opportunities in BP. The other one got information about the oil spill”. One’s historical activity online shapes their exposure making them less likely to see political content that comes from sources with arguments contrary to their beliefs. Presumably, if you have made searches for investment opportunities, you would be more likely to get search results to invest in BP, rather than seeing news articles about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Conversely, you might never learn about BPs positive impacts in society if you typically visit environmental protection sites and your search results simply demonize the corporation. SNSs currently available to the public fall short of overcoming the filter bubble problem for political issues. Gavin Newsom (2013) quotes tech journalist Greg Ferenstein regarding the Facebook filter bubble which edits out the updates of people with contrasting political positions from our feeds: “To me, there should be a Facebook application where people can track the things they care about and talk about it with people who disagree with them”. Digital Citizen provides exactly what Ferenstein asked for and its social networking overcomes the problem by not filtering political content without explicit user awareness, and via the Counterweight section, which goes one step further by encouraging users to see content from sources with contradictory views.

Facebook is a popular place for users to link news articles and share political opinions with their peers, but there is a well-known stigma against having political conversations in settings which are, intended by most, to be places of comfort and leisure that do not cause tension by addressing controversial issues (review section 4D, Chris Syme article). Most users on Facebook will log in because they want to get updates about what their friends are doing, and see a video of a kitten dancing on a beach ball. Few users aim to engage in thorough debates about important issues, or to read about their friend’s serious political views. Politics certainly has a special place in SNS activity and it’s a good thing that politics permeates our lives in this new way. However, many people want to express detailed political views on Facebook etc. but are reluctant to do so for fear of being ostracized because of their views, or simply being perceived as a “downer” amongst peers who logged in for leisure.

By providing a social networking environment where the purpose is to interact with a focus on political issues, that reluctance is removed. There will not be any filter bubbles imposed by Digital Citizen. A user profile shows political identifiers of their choosing and gives them means of expression and an opportunity to learn about the expressed views of peers. The traditional SNS features will be in place with a profile page, messaging (mailbox and instant), shared calendars, photos, and social feeds with status updates etc. Honor badges can be earned for activities such as referring friends or by accumulating certain numbers of friends/followers (“Referral Badges” and “Popularity Badges”).