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Regulating Social Media
Institutional Affiliation
Kareem Ghazzawi
ENGW3304
Dr. Justin Mellette
November 5, 2021
Regulating Social Media
Introduction
To achieve equal standards across the globe, analysts have researched the influential aspects of social media. To that extent, they have chosen to conduct regulations for social media platforms. This report will analyze how unfair competition occurs and facts that gather around the monopoly. In the same context, it will also collect social media methods that big tech companies use to beat marketing competition and develop better marketing strategies for all tech businesses alongside social media platforms (Barrett, 2020).
The International Governance Innovation has done more research on how technological advancements have affected social media regulation. The most profitable companies from technological improvements are tech companies. They have gone to the point of manipulating trends due to their influence on the globe. It is challenging for relatively small companies to compete with big companies. This research report is bound to discuss the methods being used by the big tech companies to draw competition away and at the same time create an unfair platform for other companies. There are some concerns on how the government’s involvement in social media regulation is beneficial, whether it affects the whole process positively or negatively.
On a bigger picture, the report analyzes how social media regulation is being used to ease tension between America’s communicative freedoms which can be referred to as restrictions in different parts of the globe. In the United States of America, for instance, one has the freedom of speech. This makes social media very influential as one can post or say anything via the platforms. Big tech companies, for instance, Google, have come up with various means of analyzing users’ data and coming up with applications and products that best fit their users. This is among the methods companies use to stay at the top in terms of competition (Barrett, 2020).
Findings
Background History
According to research, the Federal Communications Commission regulates interstate and international communications via television and radio. The same agency is responsible for regulating social media. Many people have questions about how social media platforms are regulated. Users do not have control over the content they see or interact with. Most social media platforms use algorithms that are somehow complex to serve users with much content to keep them scrolling. Some laws have been adopted to regulate social media at large. Examples of such rules associated with social media litigation are the communication decency act and the digital millennium copyright act. All these can be filed as lawsuits based on content found on social media. These are some instances of how the government has stepped in to regulate social media.
According to Forbes magazine, many policymakers across the world grappled with regulating social media. The big question was how the government’s intervention would affect the whole process and its consequences. Social media platforms have grown due to policies such as freedom of speech. This has widely affected other countries across the world. We think of the economic influence that comes along with Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. These are possibly among the biggest social media platforms across the globe. Research shows that social media regulation may become very hard to achieve, given people and developers’ influence and freedom. The United States stands tall among other countries on the ideology of freedom of speech. The government does not silence its critics who have an opposing opinion.
Current State
Many trends evolve daily due to social media and technology. Many privacy policy trends are being implemented across all platforms. Social media companies are now trying to move from ad-funded business models to application models that have been criticized for not preserving users’ privacy. Google is among the leading tech companies across the globe working on a project to allow the web to keep a user’s browsing history private. However, in the same context, comments have been made that this move will keep competition, creating a ‘walled garden.’ Companies working as monopolies kill the success of small companies due to the lack of finances. Alongside Digital Markets Act, the European Union is trying to analyze and conduct research to prove that companies are working together as monopolies.
Currently, the United States is working on bills to potentially create a law against platforms that give preferences to products on their platforms. An implication of the statement would be to put restrictions on business mergers. Business merging gives big companies the ability to buy off other upcoming companies with significant potential. A good example is Facebook buying other social media platforms. This bill will apply to tech companies and sectors. If this were to happen, Facebook could not have purchased WhatsApp and Instagram in the same context. Another implication of the bill would be to ban platforms that own subsidiaries. These subsidiaries are not entitled to compete with other businesses. Many businesses use subsidiaries to curb competition.
Overall, the platforms are supposed to come up with improved user data portability. This will allow users to transfer their data or information to other platforms. All these bills aim towards creating a ground for developing businesses and reducing dominancy in the tech company.
Future
According to Leerssen (2020), future trends are mostly connected to technological advancements. Social media has become almost a part of our lives, and it is set to grow and advance in the future, significantly how technology will affect social media. We talk about technological advancements like virtual reality, a simulated experience that can resemble the real world or provide an outer world experience. With just the help of a computer, an individual can create an immersive illusion similar to the real world. These are the developing trends in technology as advancements are being made to make life easier in all aspects. In the same context, there have been developments on how technological advances can affect social media. Social media users have been growing over the day. From the research that was done in 2019, over 3.5 billion users were analyzed on social media. This shows how influential social media is—the future promises good regulation tactics, such as privacy settings for users. Users are voting for platforms that require minimum details for better privacy. Restrictions are supposed to help develop commercial models for various social media platforms, for instance, subscriptions that will reduce personal information.
Developers are working on projects that will merge social media, commerce, and also entertainment. A good example is WeChat in China which has the entire above combined in one platform. Such platforms allow users to navigate freely on different things on the same platform. This allows social media regulation to become more interactive and easier to monitor. Another advancement that may seem proper for the future is multi-networking.
Multi-networking is all about how one person may be able to have many social media accounts. As a result, the way people consume content will have to change. We have seen how platforms like TikTok have become influential in this era of Covid-19. The same applies to other platforms; for instance, more videos are retweeted rather than pictures on Twitter. Artificial intelligence can be used in monitoring social media’s most influential and most preferred content (Leerssen, P. (2020).
Conclusion
The world we are living in is based on technology and social media platforms. Regulations on social media that governments are advocating are supposed to be more effective. However, research shows that these platforms have become home to violence, false information, and also used by terrorists to conduct harmful acts. According to the findings above, we see that current trends and future perspectives regulate big tech companies. To create development, there needs to be fair competition in tech companies in one way or another. The government is working on bills that are motivational acts and show the government’s support and involvement. Creating a good environment on social media platforms is one of the best ways of making the internet a better place. Social media nowadays attracts many users and has become an integral part of the current generation. The current generation relies on the internet and various social media platforms for information and current trends. In addition, the government is also able to connect with citizens mainly through social media platforms. Therefore, the government should concentrate on how some departments use social media to access and reach out to their citizens in regulating social media.
The internet has become a social hub with several types of content; it has something for everyone. Regulations are necessary to stem issues that arise from violence, the spread of false information, and even acts of terrorism planned and propagated through the internet. The call or rather the initiative by the government to drum up the necessary support to come up with applicable regulations is an idea that is very precise towards enhancing the growth of a sustainable technological environment. Technological advancement requires the proposed rules not to limit creativity and innovation but to ensure that the internet is a safe space for everybody and every user without causing harm to others.
The major players in the tech industry should come together to voice their opinion on regulating social media and internet use by some of their clients. Additionally, as a key player in social media and technology, the government should control the social media platforms and ensure that their regulations do not complicate their business models. For instance, tech companies may establish content moderation policies to govern the content accessed or used by users of their platforms. Furthermore, the government has been increasingly requesting social media platforms such as Facebook and Whatsapp to periodically uncover some of their users’ messages that may convey a piece of harmful or misleading information to their followers. This may, in turn, create a safe spot for social media users across the globe.
Regulations proposed are supposed to create a level playing field for the various players in the tech industry and various tech giants involved. As a stakeholder in technological advancement, the government is also advocating for the bills that will show that these tech giants and players can receive maximum support from the government to further their development goals without harming the rights of other users. In addition, we should all acknowledge that social media and internet regulations are a practical solution that highlights some of the common ill-rooted issues linked to social media platforms. Consequently, authorities and key players in social media platforms should work jointly with the government to promote and inform their users about the benefits and needs of social media regulations. Therefore, all should welcome internet and social media regulations to ensure that developments within the tech sector are not used for ulterior motives or breach personal privacy but rather become a tool for a better and technologically advanced world.
References
Barrett, P. M. (2020). Regulating Social Media. Center for Business.
Leerssen, P. (2020). The Soap Box as a Black Box: Regulating transparency in social media recommender systems. European Journal of Law and Technology, 11(2).
Rochefort, A. (2020). Regulating social media platforms: a comparative policy analysis. Communication Law and Policy, 25(2), 225-260.
Bourne, R. (2019, June 18). Is This Time Different? Schumpeter, the Tech Giants, and Monopoly Fatalism. Cato Institute. Retrieved October 14, 2021
Conrad, J. (2021, July 29). China cracks down on its tech giants. sound familiar? Wired. Retrieved October 14, 2021
Gersbach, H. (2020). Democratizing tech giants! A roadmap. Economics of Governance, 21(4), 351-361. Retrieved October 14, 2021
Herrera, S. (2020, January 27). Tech Giants’ new appeal to Governments: Please Regulate us. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 14, 2021
Kelly, H. (2020, June 23). Small businesses turned to technology to survive the pandemic. but it may not be enough. The Washington Post. Retrieved October 14, 2021
Moore, M. (2016). Tech giants and civic power. Retrieved October 14, 2021
Stjernfelt, F. & Lauritzen, A., M., (2020). Tech Giants and Freedom of Speech. Springer Open. Retrieved October 14, 2021
Wakabayashi, D., Isaac, M., Weise, K., Nicas, J., & June, S. (2019, September 6). 13 ways the government went after Google, Facebook, and other Tech Giants this year. The New York Times. Retrieved October 14, 2021
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