Rana 1
Haris Tahir Rana
Hajra Ikram Butt
SS 100
10th April 2023
Should the government regulate social media?
“If the first wars were fought with sticks and stones, modern warfare is a high-tech
battlefield where social media has emerged as a surprising and effective weapon (Wharton
2019).” This quote by Peter Warren Singer, an American political scientist, and a New York
Times best-selling author, perfectly encapsulates the dilemma we face today. The rise of
social media has had both positive and negative effects on society, but as it becomes
increasingly ubiquitous, it is clear that we need to regulate it. Although critics of government
regulation of social media say it is an infringement on people’s fundamental rights and
freedoms and leads to political bias, it is true that social media has facilitated the spread of
false information, hate speech and violence, cyberbullying, and has led to the violation of
people's privacy. Abuse of social media can also damage national security. Therefore,
government regulation of social media is necessary to ensure the protection of its citizens and
national security.
Social media has played a consequential role in the spread of false information and
fake news. The consequences of misinformation can be severe, as seen during the COVID-19
pandemic, where incorrect information and conspiracy theories about the virus and its
vaccines led to confusion and distrust among the public (Brennen et al.). In February 2020,
the World Health Organization announced that the new coronavirus pandemic was
accompanied by an ‘infodemic’ of misinformation (WHO 2020). During the 2016 US
presidential election, false news stories were shared more widely on Facebook than real news
stories, potentially altering the election outcome (Silverman). These statistics and examples
Rana 2
indicate the need to regulate social media platforms to prevent the spread of misinformation
and fake news.
Social media has also played a significant role in the spread of hate speech and
cyberbullying. Over a period of four years, two companies, a youth charity, Ditch the Label,
and a social intelligence company Brandwatch, analyzed 19 million tweets. Their report
found 7.7 million cases of racism, 390,296 instances of homophobia, and 19,348 examples of
transphobic messages sent on Twitter. According to the report, only public data was
scrutinized, so when the data is extrapolated from the entire Internet to include both public
and private media platforms, the level of online hate speech is overwhelming (McKenna
2016). Furthermore, a close analysis of data showed that despite the Islamic State having only
1500 militants, their ability to broadcast their propaganda on social media platforms enabled
them to recruit approximately 30,000 fighters from the Middle East, inspire people across the
globe to commit acts of violence in their home countries and instill fear in their opponents
(Wharton 2019). These examples demonstrate the need to regulate social media to combat
hate speech and violence.
Another major concern for social media users is a possible breach of their privacy. In
2018, it was revealed that the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica had collected
data from millions of Facebook users without their consent and had used this data to predict
and influence the choices of American voters (Cadwalladr, Harrison 2018). Christopher
Wylie, who worked with a Cambridge University academic to obtain the data, told
the Observer: “We exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people’s profiles. And
built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons.
That was the basis the entire company was built on.” Similarly, the data of 700
million LinkedIn users were put for sale on a Dark Web page in 2021. To verify the
validity of the breach, the hackers released a portion of the data consisting of 1
Rana 3
million records. This dataset included several information about the affectees,
including full names, email addresses, and phone numbers (Tyass, 2023). As social
media continues to play an important role in people’s lives, it is essential for the
government to take urgent steps to protect the privacy and online security.
Although the opposing side may claim that regulating social media is an
infringement on people’s natural rights and freedoms, such as freedom of speech or
expression, my point is not that the government should control social media; rather,
it should lay down a set of rules/laws that will regulate its use and prevent its misuse,
just like any other media platform.
In conclusion, the regulation of social media by governments is necessary to
ensure the safety of users from hate speech and violence and to ensure their privacy.
I believe governments have a responsibility to ensure the well-being of their people,
and by regulating social media, we can create a safer online environment for
everyone while protecting our fundamental human rights to free speech, privacy, and
safety.
Rana 4
Work Cited
“Why Social Media Is the New Weapon in Modern Warfare.” Knowledge at Wharton,
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/singer-weaponization-social-media/.
Watson, Amy. “News Topics and False Information Worldwide by Region 2022.” Statista,
28 June 2022, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1317019/false-information-topicsworldwide/.
“Cyberbullying and Its Implications for Human Rights.” United Nations, United Nations,
https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/cyberbullying-and-its-implications-humanrights.
“Revealed: 50 Million Facebook Profiles Harvested for Cambridge Analytica in Major Data
Breach.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 17 Mar. 2018,
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebookinfluence-us-election.
“The 70 Biggest Data Breaches of All Time [Updated April 2023]: Upguard.” RSS,
https://www.upguard.com/blog/biggest-data-breaches.