Question

potential downsides of leaving censorship up to the social media platforms, given that nearly all the big tech companies are headquartered in the US. Do you think this is a legitimate concern for other countries, i.e., that all information flow or the main "narrative" everyone sees will be largely dictated by American public and norms? Is it so much a matter of censorship OR a resistance to Americanization or a monopolization of information?

Answer 1

Social media is a swift and effective way of personal and professional communication. There are many social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, YouTube etc. However, leading social media agencies such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and DailyMotion are headquartered at United States. There has been reported misuse of social media channels by people for their own personal, economic and political gain. Last year, alleged theft of Facebook users data surfaced on media channels all over the world. Internet hackers claimed they gained accessed of over 120 million Facebook users data. Incidents of misuse of data of social media users during Presidential election of US and political compaigns in other countries are also reported.

To prevent unauthorized access of social media websites by advertising agencies and other mischievous groups, social media agencies are adding additional filtering options on their websites. Soon after revelation of large scale theft of Facebook users' data, Facebook CEO Mark Zukerberg announced a series of tough measure to ensure privacy of users information on Facebook. Facebook was also fined $500000 for its alleged data leakage and misuse. Following revelation of Cambridge Analytica Scandal,all social networking companies are adding up advanced filters on their websites to track and block unsafe browser adds-on.

My personal opinion about social media websites is that it does not matter whether major social communication companies are headquartered at US or other country. Social media channels are online websites that connect people from all over the world through internet. Even if social media websites are operated from diverse locations of the world, it will not completely stop misuse of social media platforms by subversive elements, political parties and marketing agencies. The only way to stop misuse of networking platforms is global awareness among people and collective efforts of all nations of the world to stop the misuse of social media. The gossips, fake news and data privacy issues of social networking sites are very much a matter of censorship as fake news, rumors always create adverse impact in the society which is not good. Effective legal guidelines for usage of social media sites by and large can check the spread of false and provocative messages on these sites.

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