Ameaças das plataformas digitais ao jornalismo: contributos para a regulação

Abstract

This article emphasizes how digital platforms pose real risks to journalism and democracy as they contribute to their deterioration through aggressive expansion strategies. The article takes the form of an essay and is based on specialized literature and documentation of cases in Brazil and abroad. The text also systematizes part of the troubled coexistence of two central systems in contemporary experience: platformized structures and the traditional journalistic service, a historical social provider of information. Big tech companies such as Alphabet/Google and Meta/Facebook, for example, are determined to concentrate markets and encroach upon the main economic, cultural, and social activities, driving their businesses towards profit maximization and competition neutralization, causing collateral damage that weakens traditional forms of social coexistence and mass communication. Despite the harmful consequences for the journalism industry, big tech companies maintain supportive discourses for the sector, materialized in development programs, professional training, and business support. However, these investments are insufficient to mitigate the losses generated by the platforms themselves. At the end of the article, the argument draws attention to the need to regulate platforms, strengthening democracy and other values relevant to collective life.