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.