Introduction
With the coming of the web 2.0 era, social media has been fully integrated into individuals’ daily lives and people have stepped into platformization. As the influence of the network and the speed of spread increases, the disadvantages that come with it cannot be ignored. The content of bullying, harassment, violence, hate, porn, and other problematic content appears on digital platforms. This essay is mainly about the reasons that problematic content should be regulated and government, users, and social media platforms should be responsible for stopping the spread of this content, also talk about some methods that users, governments, and social media platforms can use to regulation the problematic content on digital platforms.
Why content on social media needs to be regulated
The regulation of social media is important for the historical, cultural, economic, and political development of society. Firstly, based on the difference in the historical environment, today’s society has developed the internet very well, while in the past the network is not developed, the information lags and some bad information will not be widely spread. But now if there is no careful regulation of some pornography, violence, and other problematic content on the Internet, will quickly spread and ferment to bring a lot of harm to social security. Therefore, if the problematic information can be regulated well then the advantage of digital platforms can be shown well. Secondly, the spread of problematic content is bad for cultural inheritance and development. Based on the rapid spread of social media, some teenagers see a lot of unhealthy information at an age when their self-awareness is not fully formed, and in the long run, this unhealthy information will hurt the minds of teenagers. This is not conducive to the development and transmission of culture. Thirdly, it is bad for the development of economics. Social stability and harmony are beneficial to economic development, if not controlling bad information on the Internet to make it widely spread, it will lead to many people copying and doing things that endanger social security and increasing social conflicts is not conducive to economic development. Lastly, some bad content such as fake news can have a very negative impact on national politics. Fake news is not only incorrect news, but it can change by people’s thoughts and ability to feel (Thijssen, 2017). An example is BBC often makes fake news against China is also identify fake news can influence the country’s political features. This is also a political means that increased the stereotypes of Western countries of China through fake news. So China needs to make changes in international political means. When the emergence of ‘fake news’ and ‘misinformation’ becomes the norm, it is important to use mediation of political discourse in an era of increased ideological division (Schlesinger, 2020). It shows government should regulate bad information on digital platforms is very important. Thus, the regulation of social media is important for the historical, cultural, economic, and political.
Liu Xuezhou: when a society makes children lose faith in life. by CoffeewithDee. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhg1fjR7b3Q
Who is responsible for controlling problematic content on digital platforms
Users, governments, and social media platforms are responsible for stopping the spread of problematic content on digital platforms. A case study about Liuxue Zhou which is the video above shows the harm of internet violence so that problematic content must be regulated. As a citizen, people have their own public identity and have powers and duties that they cannot choose for themselves (Schlesinger, 2020). Firstly, every citizen has power and duties, and as the users of social media platforms, they have the responsibility to manage their speech and the content they post. Users should not think that they are using a virtual online identity on the Internet and therefore post bad content on digital platforms. Secondly, because of the rapid turnover of information, the government needs to regulate online information. On the one hand, government regulation of information can make the government more aware of citizens’ thoughts and wishes and can create a better social environment and online environment for young people to grow up better. On the other hand, by regulating bad information, the government can better combat cybercrime and control people who spread bad information on social media to endanger social security. In addition, the government has a strong right to regulate and deal with users who lead or post problematic content on digital media. Lastly, social media platforms as an important component of digital platforms should take the best important responsible to regulate problematic content on digital platforms. Social media platforms take more responsibility for controlling the information on the internet and the user’s action on digital platforms, this is not only for the platform to satisfy legal requirements, but also to not lose or offend users, to appease advertisers who want to work with them, and to protect their corporate image and to respect personal and institutional ethics (Flew et al., 2019). It shows that as the owner of digital platforms, they should know their responsibility in society. The number of social media is increasing all the time, and for social media platforms to be more competitive, they need to increase the regulation of information and get more users’ trust. Thus, users, governments, and social media platforms are responsible for stopping the spread of problematic content on digital platforms.
How to stop the spread of problematic content on digital media
Users, governments, and social media platforms all should take action to stop the spread of problematic content on digital platforms. Firstly, users should understand that the content posted on the Internet can be monitored by others at any time and should focus on protecting their privacy when using social media rather than posting freely without any concern. For controversial topics, users can choose to discuss them rationally instead of spreading them on the Internet, and users should understand the harm to society caused by spreading problematic content and restrain themselves strictly. When users see problematic content, they should report the content so that the social media platform can review it. Secondly, the government has a great deal of power over both social media platforms and users, government can use this power to regulate them. For example, users are the root of bad information release, in order to create a good network environment, the government can appeal to users to increase their awareness of controlling their speech. The government should introduce policies to punish the spread and guidance on posting problematic content on digital platforms. And the government can make every social media platform have a real-name system, which means every user’s account should be tied to an ID card, so that users may not post bad content freely because their virtual identity is real-name now. In addition, many users may choose social media platforms from other countries due to different national policies, which makes it more difficult and complicated to regulate speech. Therefore, the government should always pay attention to the hot information on the Internet and social media platforms in other countries to stop the country’s people from using bad websites in time. Lastly, moderation refers to the screening, evaluation, classification, approval, or removal of online content through policies for the distribution and publication of content (Flew et al., 2019). Social media should increase the strength of content review and set up blocking sensitive words so that some bad words cannot be posted on public platforms. Social media platforms also need to limit the flow of controversial content and let fewer people pay attention to the content so that they are not led by users who deliberately direct problematic content. Many digital platforms can learn how to increase the regulation of contents such as facebook is a good case study of increased regulation of the digital platform. In addition to increasing moderation, the platform should also introduce some punishment policies, such as the blocking of some users’ accounts who often post problematic content, so as to increase the punishment so that users do not dare to release content freely. Thus, users, governments, and social media platforms all should take action to stop the spread of problematic content on digital platforms.
Conclusion
In conclusion, due to the strong influence of social media, it has become extremely important to manage some problematic content on digital platforms and establish a good internet environment. This essay is mainly about the reasons that problematic content should be regulated and government, users, and social media platforms should be responsible for stopping the spread of this content, also talk about some methods that users, governments, and social media platforms can use to regulation the problematic content on digital platforms.
Reference list:
Creating the Oversight Board. (2022, January 19). Transparency Center. https://transparency.fb.com/oversight/creation-of-oversight-board/
Flew, Martin, F., & Suzor, N. (2019). Internet regulation as media policy: Rethinking the question of digital communication platform governance. Journal of Digital Media & Policy, 10(1), 33–50. https://doi.org/10.1386/jdmp.10.1.33_1
Schlesinger. (2020). After the post-public sphere. Media, Culture & Society, 42(7-8), 1545–1563. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443720948003
Thijssen. (2017). Breaking the news : The effects of fake news on political attitudes. University of Twente Student Theses. https://essay.utwente.nl/72995/
Why is BBC making fake news against China? (2021, February 23). CGTN. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-02-23/Why-is-BBC-making-fakes-news-against-China–Y7rF2snEZi/index.html
