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It is naive to assume that regulating social media companies will solve the problem
companies and the need to regulate their responsibilities around uploaded content. Certainly, there is a need to regulate content and persuade such companies to act quickly to remove harmful or offensive material.
However, there is a danger in assuming that, once this is done, the problems will be resolved. It also fits into an all-too-human response to problems: someone else needs to do “something” about this. Social media is a relatively recent phenomenon , and it seems to trigger something within the human psyche. Some of us wish to lead and communicate our beliefs to a wider audience and seek self-affirmation.
Before 2000, this might have involved writing letters or perhaps standing on a soapbox in a public park. The advent of social media has turbocharged this behaviour in a way that was not expected.
For example, The Irish Times allowed readers to post comments on online articles until, in the end, it terminated the feature.
‘An incredible course’: K Club’s Palmer South emerges from the shadow for Women’s Irish Open‘I left school without filling out CAO form’: Louth GAA’s Sam Mulroy insists Leaving Cert ‘doesn’t define you’became a battleground. I don’t believe that either The Irish Times or RIP.ie have any algorithmic features at play to foster such behaviour. Anyone who has been part of even a simple messaging or chat group will probably have observed similar behaviour.
There is a need for regulation to help mitigate some of the worst-offending posts, but to assume that this will be a solution, given the breadth and scale of the problem, is either naive or an attempt to jump on a bandwagon for political gain. I can’t profess to have a solution to this issue .
– Yours, etc,Boston Scientific lays groundwork to shift $15bn from Irish operationMembers resign from internal People Before Profit group over ‘hegemonic’ leadership styleCork man fined for abusing British Airways cabin crew in drunken row over toilet
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