To sustain a healthy democracy, an educated electorate is critical. In order for people to govern themselves, they must have accurate facts about events that concern them. In the early days of our country, people relied on word-of-mouth and print media for their information. In our modern technological age, more and more people rely on social media and the internet for their information. There have been numerous articles about how technology is being used to manipulate what people see and hear.

1) What risks do you see to our freedoms and democracy based on the use of technology to control what information we get?

2) Word-of-mouth lends credibility because it is supposedly what a real person (or people) think. What new risks do we face when bots impersonate real people?

3) What experiences have you had (if any) where you thought you knew the facts and found out later that they were not correctly represented by social media or the internet?

4) Should we just expect people find the true facts through the maze of technological hurdles or should the government take action and regulate?