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Social Media Censorship

Juan Cantu

Research Methods

Texas A&M CC

Social Media Censorship

Freedom of information, speech, and expression on social media are contested topics that have divided masses and policymakers on what constitutes free speech and what type of content demands enforcement of limitations of what people can share on social media. Social media censorship is a complex topic that requires consideration of free speech, public safety, responsible use of social media platforms, and the responsibilities of owners of social media platforms. Proponents argue that censorship helps protect users from hate speech, harassment, misinformation, and other harmful content.

Pro-social media censorship advocates deem social media platform owners responsible for formulating and enforcing policies to moderate and remove content that violates their policies or local laws to encourage the development of a healthier online discourse and protect vulnerable groups and individuals. Critics of social media censorship cite concerns of potential abuse of power and infringement of free speech rights. In recent times, social media usage and its influence on the formation of public discourse have exponentially risen, and biased or politically motivated content moderation can have significant repercussions on the sociopolitical discourse of a region.

Literature Review

During the recently concluded COVID-19 pandemic, social media platforms were flooded with fake news and misinformation regarding the potential cure, origin, and development of vaccination for the COVID-19 virus. This unprecedented flow of misinformation forced popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to formulate and enforce moderation and fact-checking policies for content related to the pandemic (Oremus, 2019). Facebook's parent company Meta has massively expanded its content regulation and fact-checking infrastructure by incorporating third-party fact-checking organizations for Facebook and Instagram (O'Sullivan, 2022). Twitter also launched its community-based fact-checking program BirdWatch which relies on the consensus of opinion-based fact-checking of information conducted by community members (Lorenz et al., 2022).

Empirical evidence suggests that the continuous spread of distinct narratives across social media platforms, regardless of the factual validity of information, creates homogenized and polarized clusters of people within a region (Del Vicario et al., 2015). Moreover, once formed based on similar consumption of information and content across social media, these clusters can become highly polarized and resistant to correction of beliefs formed on misinformation and fake news. A recently conducted USC study revealed that dissemination of fake news and the spread of misinformation across social media platforms had been found to be driven by social media platforms' structural tendencies of rewarding the habitual sharing of information by its users (Madrid, 2023). The spread of misinformation and fake news across social media has been attributed to evoking different emotions within the consumers of such information. It has been linked to posing serious challenges to the public's physical and mental health as well as the safety of public property (Luo et al., 2021). Governments across the globe are formulating and enforcing laws of social media censorship and content moderation, citing the harmful impacts of the spread of misinformation and fake news across social media.

Activist groups against social media censorship have repeatedly highlighted the potential for abuse of powers, infringement of the right to free speech, and the horrors of biased and politically motivated moderation of content to alter the public discourse within the region. The First Amendment protects free speech from prosecution by government authorities; however, social media platforms are privately owned, and the censorship policies implemented by such platforms should also be held accountable and made transparent, given the rise of the influence of social media in current years (Nott & Peters, n.d.).

Amidst recent speculations of the US government outsourcing social media censorship to private consortiums, there is a need to understand and reflect on the important issue of recent attempts made by government agencies to circumvent freedom of speech in the name of censorship of fake news and misinformation. The potential for political manipulation through social media is a serious threat to the free and fair conduct of elections fundamental to the functioning and progress of democracy within the country. Findings of a survey conducted in 2020 revealed that the majority of Americans perceived that social media sites actively censored political viewpoints which differed from the mainstream public discourse (Vogels et al., 2018).

There is no denying the potential harm done by spreading false information and fake news across social media platforms. However, the importance and respect for basic human rights, such as freedom of speech, must be considered in formulating and enforcing remedial measures. Transparency of efforts done by the government to censor potentially harmful content on social media platforms is necessary to minimize the potential misuse of social media censorship to silence dissident voices and avoid political manipulation (MacCarthy,2022). Development of a synergic and holistic approach towards countering the spread of misinformation should be adopted while considering the respect of freedom of free speech and expression of people.

References

Del Vicario, M., Bessi, A., Zollo, F., Petroni, F., Scala, A., Caldarelli, G., ... & Quattrociocchi, W. (2016). The spreading of misinformation online.  Proceedings of the national academy of Sciences,  113(3), 554-559.

Lorenz, T., Oremus, W., & Merrill, J. B. (2022, November 10). How Twitter's contentious new fact-checking project works. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/09/twitter-birdwatch-factcheck-musk-misinfo/

Luo, H., Cai, M., & Cui, Y. (2021). Spread of misinformation in social networks: Analysis based on Weibo tweets.  Security and Communication Networks,  2021, 1-23.

MacCarthy, M. (2022, October 12). Government efforts to censor social media should be transparent. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/washingtonbytes/2022/10/05/government-efforts-to-censor-social-media-should-be-transparent/?sh=279c59c70cf8

Madrid, P. (2023, January 17). The study reveals a key reason why fake news spreads on social media. USC News. https://news.usc.edu/204782/usc-study-reveals-the-key-reason-why-fake-news-spreads-on-social-media/

Nott, L., & Peters, B. (2023, January 18). Free speech on Social Media: The Complete Guide. Freedom Forum. https://www.freedomforum.org/free-speech-on-social-media/

Oremus, W. (2022, October 28). How social media “censorship” became a front line in the Culture War. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/09/social-media-content-moderation/

O’Sullivan, D. (2022, November 16). Facebook fact-checkers will stop checking Trump after presidential bid announcement | CNN politics. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/15/politics/facebook-fact-check-donald-trump/index.html

Vogels, E. A., Perrin, A., & Anderson, M. (2020). Most Americans think social media sites censor political viewpoints.