Nayib Bukele and the role of social media in El Salvador's democracy

Abstract

Nayib Bukele has been one of the first world leaders to use social media to break the national and international media monopoly, which has imposed a way of thinking on domestic audiences in line with its interests in resource extraction, colonialism, corruption, progressivism, woke ideology, gender ideology, and organized crime. The use of social media burst onto the scene in a toxic and polluted environment of fake news; this disruption was intended to democratize political communication with the public and give it a horizontal dimension, where any citizen can freely express their opinions without going through the editorial offices of traditional media outlets, which in reality act as filters to block ideas, thoughts, or opinions that do not threaten the prevailing status quo—a status quo from which they thrive and profit, shielded to ensure impunity through a legal system they have tailored to their own needs.