US Democracy has been ‘hacked’ by big business

According to former U.S. vice-president Al Gore, U.S. democracy has been “hacked” by big business and needs to be reclaimed using the power of the internet to hold politicians to account.

In an interview to mark the publication of his new book, The Future, offering a blunt assessment of the extent to which private companies influence decision-making in the U.S., he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “American politics has fallen into a state of disrepair.”
Gore added: “It can be fixed, but we need to recognize that our democracy has been hacked… It has been taken over… and is being operated for purposes other than those for which it was intended.”
In the interview, Gore alluded to a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision that banned restrictions on political donations by corporations in the name of free speech.
He agreed that U.S. politics has become more divisive, saying: “Certainly the level of partisanship and vitriol has been growing. And I think it is directly connected to the influence of big money – anonymous contributors, corporations pretending to be people and pursuing their business plans in the guise of politics and encouraging many politicians to say things and do things that would not have been seen in the best interests of the public in years past.”
Gore said his own political ambitions had switched from trying to gain elected office to influencing events from the outside.