To inform or to interact, that is the question: the role of freedom of information in social media policies

Abstract

The concept of freedom of information has been raised to a fundamental good that permeats all aspects of modern democratic societies. The goal of this paper is to explore the role of this principle in relation to local authorities attempts to increase citizen participation via increased levels of social media usage. We argued that social media policy work raises a conflict in connection to the established norms of freedom of information and the ideological underpinnings of the technology in use. Our analysis builds on a Swedish case study and illustrates the conflict between citizen-government interaction via social media technologies and the established norms of freedom of information.