The Digital Dark Age: Threats to Knowledge and US Democracy

The Digital Dark Age: Threats to Knowledge and US Democracy In November 2025, CTRL held a workshop exploring technological and political threats to knowledge-producing institutions in the United States. Topics included attacks on public sources of data and scientific research, the role of propaganda in a fragmented media ecosystem, the changing political economy of the technology sector, and the ways in which generative artificial intelligence is reshaping how citizens seek, access, consume, and understand information. Taken together, these trends threaten the future of democratic accountability, scientific progress, and, ultimately, human flourishing. Participants included scholars from the fields of political science, communications, and science and technology studies. They were asked to contribute pre-workshop provocations, which were published by Tech Policy Press here. Conclusions from the workshop will be featured in a forthcoming special issue of Social Media + Society.