Although it has the potential to be a powerful democratizing tool, social media can easily become another proxy
The phenomenon that we now call ‘social media’ arguably started around the turn of the millennium with sites like Friends Reunited, at first offering a simple way for the internet to allow old friends to reconnect with each other. With the advent of Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and other services as the 2000s drew on, the concept of allowing people to connect with each other online was expanded, adapted and iterated upon in various ways. To start with, the purpose was simple – to provide novel online social interaction focused squarely on the users.
But social media now is no longer a novelty, or merely a fun way to use the internet. In 2020, it’s estimated that over 3.8 billion people worldwide use social media, and these online spaces have started to influence our lives in ways that few of us could have expected 15 years ago. People do more than socialize on Twitter, Facebook et al; we get news, discuss politics, organize, engage in activism and live a significant proportion of our lives online. We have even started calling people or accounts with many online connections "influencers" because they have a real potential to sway the opinions and actions of their followers.
The forces at play
The astonishing power that has grown in social media platforms presents the governments of the world with two problems: Information manipulation and big tech corporate power. First, vested interests can manipulate social media from without to spread " social media democracy avast
