With wider availability, knowledge can be susceptible to hackers, perhaps altering or deleting sections of it thereby decreasing it's original value. Knowledge gained from the web may be old without the user recognizing the fact. If the web information is not date and time stamped then this could easily happen. If an article of text were send to a large number of sites and then a later upgrade was done but then only sent to a subset of the original sites then problems may occur. People have a tendency to beleive what they read and then use it without question, quoting it to others and creating a degradation of the information.
Democracy is strengthened by having a free flow of ideas and criticisms by members of society.
Democracy does not have to fear the web as it is not run by any one person and has no laws, police or army. With television much of what we watch is carefully selected and edited by the major networks thereby influencing our voting behaviour at government elections. The web can provide unbiased information on candidates to allow voters a chance for rational decision making. The web was used to give live bulletins during the Gulf War and the Tiananmen Square confrontation providing an insight into undemocratic countries, perhaps strengthening our beleif in democratic principles. The phrase Democratization of Information often comes up in discussions about the Internet, which is, indeed a truly democratic forum.