Online Public Debate. How Can We Make It More Intelligent?

This chapter contends with the imperative of enhancing the intellectual caliber of online public debates, a task that falls to both policymakers and CI researchers. It scrutinizes the digital transformation of public discourse in the digital age, examining the erosion of the traditional public sphere and the rise of online platforms as new arenas for civic engagement and policymaking discussions. The chapter also discusses the use of social network analysis as a method of calculating the features of online debate. It addresses the challenges and opportunities of the online public sphere, such as information dissemination dynamics and opinion polarization, and concerns like social media's role in behavioral targeting, information noise, and the spread of misinformation. Furthermore, it presents findings from empirical studies, including a laboratory experiment comparing policy and business debates, Twitter discussions on mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations, and stock price predictions during Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The chapter concludes with proposed models for intelligent public debate, highlighting the importance of independent and engaged citizens and differentiating between deliberative and agonistic responses to online antagonism. Finally, it delineates key perspectives on enhancing collective intelligence for more effective and substantively valuable policymaking.