How many times have we heard that the Internet is playing a positive role in helping democracy spread? But is there proof?

The Internet will spread direct democracy! [1]

In Switzerland, they have been running their country on direct democracy. Long before the Internet. Has any other country gone down the same path in the last 20 years?

We were told that social media would help free the world of nasty dictatorships. Especially in countries rich in oil.

Remember the protests that shook Iran in 2009? "It's happening thanks to Twitter!". Not true. Most of the accounts tweeting against the regime were based not in Iran, but in the US, in Switzerland and in Turkey. [2]

What about Trump? How many people use Twitter in Ohio or in rural Pennsylvania?

But if the New York Times or CNN give his wacky tweets undue coverage, that helps.

My personal heroes are a group of teenagers in a small city in Macedonia who dropped out of school to run pro-Trump fake news websites full time. Because it was easier to dupe and make money off Trump supporters than to dupe Clinton supporters. [3]