单选题   Para. 1 ①Facebook, Google and Twitter were supposed to improve politics. ②Something has gone very wrong.
    Para. 2 ①In 1962 a British political scientist, Bernard Crick, published 'In Defence of Politics'. ②He argued that the art of political horse-trading, far from being shabby, lets people of different beliefs live together in a peaceful, thriving society.
    Para. 3 ①In a liberal democracy, nobody gets exactly what he wants, but everyone broadly has the freedom to lead the life he chooses. ②However, without decent information, civility and conciliation, societies resolve their differences by resorting to coercion.
    Para. 4 ①How Crick would have been dismayed by the falsehood and partisanship on display in this week's Senate committee hearings in Washington. ②Not long ago social media held out the promise of a more enlightened politics, as accurate information and effortless communication helped good people drive out corruption, bigotry and lies. ③Yet Facebook acknowledged that before and after last year's American election, 146 million users may have seen Russian misinformation on its platform. ④Google admitted to 1,108 Russian-linked videos and Twitter to 36,746 accounts. ⑤Far from bringing enlightenment, social media have been spreading poison.
    Para. 5 ①Russia's trouble-making is only the start. ②From South Africa to Spain, politics is getting uglier. ③Part of the reason is that, by spreading untruth and outrage, corroding voters' judgment and aggravating partisanship, social media erode the conditions for the horse-trading that Crick thought fosters liberty.
    Para. 6 ①The use of social media does not cause division so much as amplify it. ②The financial crisis stoked popular anger at a wealthy elite that had left everyone else behind. ③The culture wars have split voters by identity rather than class.
    Para. 7 ①Nor are social media alone in their power to polarize—just look at cable TV and talk radio. ②But, whereas Fox News is familiar, social media platforms are new and still poorly understood. ③And, because of how they work, they wield extraordinary influence. ④They make their money by putting photos, personal posts, news stories and ads in front of you.
    Para. 8 Because they can measure how you react, they know just how to get under your skin.
    Para. 9 ①They collect data about you in order to have algorithms to determine what will catch your eye, in an 'attention economy' that keeps users scrolling, clicking and sharing again and again and again. ②Anyone setting out to shape opinion can produce dozens of ads, analyze them and see which is hardest to resist. ③The result is compelling: one study found that users in rich countries touch their phones 2,600 times a day.
    Para. 10 ①It would be wonderful if such a system helped wisdom and truth rise to the surface. ②But, whatever Keats said, truth is not beauty so much as it is hard work—especially when you disagree with it.
    Para. 11 ①Everyone who has scrolled through Facebook knows how, instead of imparting wisdom, the system dishes out compulsive stuff that tends to reinforce people's biases. ②This aggravates the politics of contempt that took hold, in the United States at least, in the 1990s.