We talk about populism, in particular in the digital sense that I believe the scholars should privilege, starting from three events: Brexit, Trump administration, Yellow-green government in Italy. This paper shows how in all three cases the internet was decisive. In the Brexit case, a typical example of digital populist opposition, the profiling and micro-targeting techniques were decisive for Leave to win the referendum. In the Trump case, a typical example of populist government, the occupation of the media through the use of Twitter was even more decisive than Russiagate and Cambridge Analytica. Finally, in
the case of the Italian Yellow-green government, Facebook’s callous use was decisive for the rise of the Salvini’s League and the fall of Five Stars Movement.
In the face of all this, the Author believes that Western elites have three obligatory paths: at the very least, to use the Internet better than their opponents; as a maximum, to tackle the major socio-economic problems that fuel populist resentment; as an intermediate yet most urgent solution, the Internet must be regulated.
