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Both tech companies and AI algorithms exercise immense power in today's globally interconnected world, which is based on big data and digital footprints of online users. This paper analyses the transfer of power from societies to tech companies and algorithms with the aim of examining whether recommender algorithms can be considered a public good. Deployed methods include content analysis and literature reviews. The study has found that control exercised over public opinion, decisions and moods of online users is unprecedented to such a high degree in human history. The above-mentioned control is based on the impact of both tech companies and algorithms. The limitation of this research is the lack of quantitative analysis. Future research should concentrate on defining recommender algorithms as a public good and analyzing how different media content, including virtual reality, affects citizens' psychology.

Social media are becoming an indispensable communication tool today, including political communication. Therefore, technological companies running them have a great power. Every intervention they have in the public sphere may have far-reaching consequences. We will focus on two cases of the influence of technological companies on media, election and legislative processes as basic factors of democracy. We will consider the implications of the prohibition of Donald Trump's use of Twitter, as well as the conflict of Australia's media policy with Facebook and Google. We have reached the conclusion that in these cases technological companies took over the power that used to belong to the judicial and legislative branch of power, in terms of defining what hate speech, as well as media regulation is. Accordingly, this threatens the information system and sovereignty of the countries where these interventions are made. These events indicate that the world is entering a period of domination of technological companies, which may be called technocracy or technofeudalism. Further considerations should be directed towards defining social media as a public good that should be influenced by societies and not only technological companies as the owners of these communication platforms.

Whistleblowing cases that shook intelligence community in the last decade have something in common. Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning, and Reality Winner are all members of a single generation - Millennials. We challenge the viewpoint that depicts this generation as a potential "insider threat." Millennials do have certain psychological traits and attitudes that can be related to tendencies towards whistleblowing, but these findings still do not approve the rhetoric that creates distrust towards the generation. This paper proposes a shift from the cultural to the socio-psychological level of analysis, with respect to both cultural and individual characteristics of whistleblowers, but puts more emphasis on the social dimension. In comprehending recent cases of leaking classified information, it is not enough to reduce explanation to some individual personality traits or hide behind an abstraction, such as the concept of generation. To shed more light on the issue, we introduce the concept of the imagined community, such as the open source community, promoting free Internet and transparency of information and knowledge. Therefore, mental membership in an imagined community might be more decisive for blowing the whistle than the global set of values related to the whole generation of Millennials.

State represents a social phenomenon which is constantly changing - just like all political actors. The direction of that evolution is determined by the development and current state of the art in technological domain. That explains how the rise of social media and new ICTs has shaped the contemporary political communication. This paper sheds light on the manner in which digital tools are exploited in an unpredictable social ambience which is characterized by numerous political crises. Special attention has been given to the phenomenon of digital astroturfing and political disinformation trends in Venezuela and Brazil. We have found that the dynamic technological development combined with the use of political bots has been creating the potential for fake news, thus impacting election processes and endangering democracy. Therefore, these phenomena need further scientific examination.