Social Media Regulation - Is it time?

One of the most iconic instances in recent history to spark this necessary debate

The Beginning

In the past 2 months, I have heard at least 7 different accounts where people have mentioned they saw an ad online (Facebook or Instagram) after discussing that product in an offline conversation with a friend. I’m sure this has happened to some of you too. It really is unsettling, but I think I’m making my peace with it. I shouldn’t be though.

Honestly, my first exposure to the FB congressional hearings that happened in April 2018, was a parody Bad Lip Reading video. As a marketer, and a semi-aware member of society, that is rather unfortunate and embarrassing. The video triggered an intensive research that I then started to do, to understand what really happened with the Cambridge Analytica case. One thing led to another, and I found myself down a rabbit hole of multiple data breaches and privacy violations. Now, is as good a time as any, to tell you that, I love Black Mirror and Mr. Robot; and I genuinely believe that these shows don’t present an outlandish future.

The Bad

Technology surrounds us. From facial and voice recognition, to virtual reality and augmented reality – advancements that were a form of fiction in times as recent as the 1990s (yes, that’s really not a long time ago), have made their way into our daily lives. Developing AI and machine learning technology allows for robots to have human conversations, recognize patterns and constantly learn, develop and improve so that they can be, well, more human like.

With the growing access and availability of data, we have seen several privacy concerns crop up in the past 2 years alone. The propagation of fake news and social media’s role in the recent elections – US and India have been a rising cause of concern. Even with the recent unfortunate NZ shooting, we’ve seen the government take a strong stand and call for regulation of unfiltered content that was uploaded on social platforms like Facebook and Youtube.

The Good

The internet, and specifically social media platforms have been able to facilitate great change –the #metoo movement has seen tremendous reach and impact calling out influential individuals for their apathetic and inconsiderate behavior. We have seen several instances where social media has been used as an effective tool to bring communities together in times of crisis - #bringbackourgirls, the #icebucketchallenge and the aid during #hurricaneharvey are all great examples of successful stories. The one common thread holding these together is that they’re all great examples of human compassion using a non-conventional platform to spread awareness and bring people together as a form of activism and action.

The Ideal

I believe that it is necessary to regulate the platforms. Having said that, it’s important that the government doesn’t necessarily regulate the content that goes up, but enforces rules that enable these platforms to be independent enforcers holding them to a higher moral standard, who don’t associate to governments but are tools for the people to ensure that their voices are heard and become instruments of change. Now, I understand the idealistic nature of my belief. This of course, is easier said than done. Multiple stockholders, investing companies, lobbying and vested interests make this so much more difficult to achieve. And let’s face it, no form of government would want to empower the people to an extent where they have so much power over the government. And this is exactly where the challenge lies. Heads of companies, investors and the stakeholders need to see and believe in the potential that social media has to an improved and better future and work towards being more socially responsible.

Privacy is often a concern that comes up, and that’s where I believe governments can hold companies accountable for their lapses and negligence. Let’s face it, all our data, ranging from what we like, to our deepest darkest secrets, is available on the internet in binary codes, ready to be accessed and used for countless purposes and profitability. The question is, keep the people informed. We’ve seen a large rise in the number of people who are willing and okay with sharing their data if it means that they get better and more personalized goods and services. It is the responsibility of these companies to ensure that they protect our identities, our data and have measures to reprimand and correct any kind of data breach or misuse. Honestly, this is the only kind of regulation of the internet I believe is necessary.