Good afternoon adjudicator, chairperson, opponents and students. My name is
Aaron, and I will be the second speaker from the affirmative team.
Our first speaker has already explained that social media companies have
purposefully designed their platforms to keep users on the app for as long as
possible. It is because the users of social media, unlike users of cigarettes, alcohol, or
junk food, are not the source of the companies’ revenues. The revenues of social
media companies come from advertisers, not users. Social media companies have a
strong incentive to keep users online for prolonged periods to earn more
advertisement revenue. They cause the problem of the user's addiction. According to
the research from Cambridge University The Problem of Social Media addiction The
Chinese government has declared that internet addiction is a “public health hazard”
Therefore, social media companies should bear the responsibilities so they should be
taxed as a punishment.
Also, taxing the companies can have a better effect on solving the problem of users’
addiction as the tax is an indirect tax and part of the tax burden can be shifted to the
users. The companies may charge an additional fee to the user who spends too much
time on social media. People will be less willing to use social media and leads to a
harder action for the users to fall into the hook canvas. We are not going to ban the
usage of social media but regulate the time of using it by slightly increasing the cost
of users.