Government intervention in social media

Hannah Adams Asst. Opinion Editor

Society is in an age that circulates largely around social media, making it unsurprising that the government is attempting methods at regulating accessibility and usage for the population. It is difficult to decipher the motives of government intervention most of the time, and the issue of social media is no different.

Identity theft is on the rise, and the protection of people’s privacy and safety is important. At the same time, government presence could also mean the mandating of content and expression on an individual’s platforms. Given that there are minors with a social media presence, their protection and safety online has prompted the introduction of a new legislation that claims to have the purpose of keeping big-name tech companies accountable.

The government made many moves last year in trying to create mandates regarding privacy online and protecting youths. Identity theft is not a joke, and it has been happening more often as new platforms are introduced and hacking technology becomes more advanced. When signing up for a social media account, users are often asked to fill in a variety of personal information. This ranges from birthdays to phone numbers and even the city that the user lives in. In the CNBC article “More social media regulation is coming in 2023, members of Congress say,” by Ashley Capoot, the concept of governmental intervention with social media platforms is discussed.

“Congress failed to pass many of the most aggressive bills targeting tech in 2022, including antitrust legislation that would require app stores developed by Apple and Google to give developers more payment options, and a measure mandating new guardrails to protect kids online,” Capoot said. “Congress made more headway this year than in the past toward a compromise bill on national privacy standards, but there remains only a patchwork of state laws determining how consumer data is protected. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said bipartisan support exists for many of these bills, and many have made it onto the Senate floor. But she said the tech lobby is so powerful that bills with ‘strong, bipartisan support’ can fall apart ‘within 24 hours.’”

Just like most other things, the government’s insertion of social media regulation should be done in moderation and with consideration to the desires of the people as well. As much as it is the duty of this country’s government to protect their people, it is also the duty of a democracy to listen to the people’s desires and expression.

Moderation is important, as there are behaviors online that are threatening, discriminatory, violent or harmful to another person. There is no real reason to defend these behaviors or fight for them to be allowed to continue. At the same time, a person’s right to speak on issues they have an opinion on or to express themselves freely — so long as it is not imminently harmful to others — should not be breached by any government mandate.

In a Brookings article, “Transparency is essential for effective social media regulation,” by Mac MacCarty, the author elaborates the importance of transparency from government to people in these scenarios.

“Transparency is not a single policy tool,” MacCarty said. “It has different dimensions. Roughly, they are providing disclosures to users, public reporting, and access to data for researchers. Disclosure to users includes revealing information about the content moderation standards a social media company has in place, its enforcement processes, and explanations of takedowns and other content moderation actions, descriptions of complaint procedures, among other things. Each of these outputs provide users with opportunities to complain about problematic content and to receive due process when social media companies take action against them.”

Congress passing the bipartisan bill that has banned TikTok from all government devices is the furthest advancement of government intervention in social media so far. This has prompted discussions pushing for more transparency from other social media platforms as well, including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, which all operate using similar algorithms.

These new bills have been receiving mixed reviews, both politically and in general, from the American people. Some feel that the government is creating unnecessary limitations as a power play, while others feel that it is the right decision to create these limitations for the sake of protection. At the end of the day, it seems safe to say that it may be both.