The fake news phenomenon in Byung-Chul Han

a review of Carl Schmitt

Abstract

Carl Schmitt’s controversial political theory marked the 20^th century, with concepts such as political unity, enmity and sovereignty. However, it is undeniable that Schmitt’s context of intellectual production was altered, with the advent of neoliberal society, new technologies and digital media. We have moved from a disciplinary society to a burnout society, widely analysed by the South Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han. The theme is part of the Brazilian national and of the international political context of interference by social media in the political process. Thus, it is necessary to inquire if Schmitt's theoretical bases are able to clarify a new conjuncture, marked by the phenomenon of fake news shitstorms. Thereby, one verifies the refurbish of Schmitt's concept of political sovereignty, proposed by Han, as well as certain predicates of Schmitt's work: the binomial friendship-enmity, political unity and decisionism. In addition, one analyse the origins of fake news and why they are influential in the political process, according to Han’s work, as well as the impacts on the stability of the political unity caused by this influence, according to Schmitt. The methodology used in the research is hypothetical-deductive, through bibliographic research of the works of Schmitt and Han, and of articles that analysed the concepts forged by the German jurist. It has as hypothesis: the Schmittian theory anticipates contemporary problems, regarding the difficulty of forming a unit capable of making effective political decisions. The re-reading of the Schmittian work, proposed by Han, demonstrates, however, an insufficiency for the interpretation of certain phenomena related to social media and new forms of violence. Thus, the main hypothesis, to be confirmed or not, is that the concept of Schmittian sovereignty must be updated to the issues of the 21st century, as it is unable to explain the fake news shitstorms.