Coming Soon: Regulation Of Social Media
Uploaded on 2020-11-25 in INTELLIGENCE--International, GOVERNMENT-National, FREE TO VIEW, BUSINESS-Services-Law, TECHNOLOGY-Key Areas-Social Media
The US elections of 2016 and 2020, a number of significant global events and not least, the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, have all focused attention on the role of social media and and impact of disinformation and fake news. A number of countries are considering regulating social media and a new report has put forward a range of proposals that its authors say could end the "informational chaos that poses a vital threat to democracies". The Report is published by the Forum for Information and Democracy, which was established to make non-binding recommendations to 38 countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, South Korea and the United Kingdom.
One of its suggestions is that social networks should be required to release details of their algorithms and core functions to trusted researchers, in order for the technology to be vetted. It also suggests adding "friction" to online sharing, to prevent the rampant spread of disinformation.
Contributing to the report were Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie, and former Facebook investor Roger McNamee, free expression advocacy group Article 19 and digital rights groups the Electronic Frontier Foundation .
Recommendations
One of the core recommendations is the creation of a "statutory building code", which describes mandatory safety and quality requirements for digital platforms in which social media networks would be required to weigh up all the potential harms that could be caused by their design and engineering decisions. The report also suggests social networks should display a correction to every single person who was exposed to misinformation, if independent fact-checkers identify a story as false.
Other suggestions include:
- Implementing "circuit breakers" so that newly viral content is temporarily stopped from spreading while it is fact-checked.
- Forcing social networks to disclose in the news feed why content has been recommended to a user.
- Limiting the use of micro-targeting advertising messages.
- Making it illegal to exclude people from content on the basis of race or religion.
- Banning the use of so-called dark patterns - user interfaces designed to confuse or frustrate the user, such as making it hard to delete your account.
India is Already Taking Action
India’s government has ordered that all online news, social media and video streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime are to be subject to state regulation, raising fears of increased censorship of digital media. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, which regulates and censors print newspapers, television, films and theatre, will also have jurisdiction, under the new order, over digital news and entertainment platforms in India.
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