Social Media
In today’s world, where people think about the filters they will apply to their ‘morning coffee’ picture before even taking a sip of it, it should be of no surprise that social media has become deeply entangled with our lives. From the minute we wake up to notifications to finally going to bed, reading dark academic quotes, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat have become part and parcel of our days. Their purpose is not just clicking aesthetic photos and gaining likes and comments anymore. Social media platforms have become one of the most massive platforms for people to connect, express their opinions, enlighten others about issues that concern them, and spread awareness. India recently saw a spike in the support given to local businesses and local communities as celebrities reposted their products, coupled with Instagram launching special ‘Vocal-for-Local’ stickers in a campaign to raise awareness. #sustainability and #saynotofastfashion also trended. Twitter went black with #blacklivesmatter, and the outrage over the environment bill amendment led to anti-EIA petitions gaining millions of signatures. However, is everything all hale and hearty as it appears to be?
If I had a penny for every time I ‘liked’ something related to painting on Instagram and then saw ten thousand painting advertisements on google, or had piano related conversations with people, maybe checked a models or two on Amazon, and my youtube was suddenly flooded with ‘simply piano’ suggestions all of a sudden… let’s just say I might not need a day job. I’m sure you, the person reading this, have also seen, at some point in time or the other, their Facebook suddenly turns into a showcase of gift cards and presents ideas as their friends’ birthdays approach. Did you think this was all a stroke of luck or a consequence of psychic readings? I hate bursting bubbles but what it was was a carefully planned and executed invasion into your privacy using millions of cookies and well, very niche algorithms.
A large chunk of the money social media platforms make comes from selling our private data to corporations (it is rightly said, after all, capitalism is everywhere). That is how Amazon, Netflix, Ikea know exactly what to sell to you, or why Good Reads will not recommend Kapil Mishra’s book to an anti-rightist on Twitter. The ‘guaranteed security’ only goes to the extent of preventing people without your password to login to your account, but as far as the social media sites themselves are concerned, they don’t shy away from earning an extra buck when big corporations want your data.
The harms of this breach of privacy are not restricted to capitalistic entrapment on websites that sell products, though. With the world at large being largely polarised these days, getting bifurcated into ‘right’ and ‘left’ ideologies and splitting into echo chambers, radicalism is on the rise and has deeply entrenched into governance systems. When data on platforms where people express their opinions is no longer encrypted, it becomes very easy for authoritarian governments to curb dissent. People are getting arrested for talking about their lived experiences, and freedom of speech is becoming a bygone phenomenon.
What is the decentralization of social media?
When the threat to the basic rights of the citizens of a country was made visceral in recent times, the concept of decentralized media was introduced. Decentralized social media is a concept and practice where data and power is not condensed in the hands of one person/company/group of individuals but distributed over the entire community of users of a particular social media platform. That means that not only is access to data universal but also that there is a natural system of checks and balances. What’s important next is security.
Blockchain
Let us understand what blockchain is and how it fits into social media
Blockchain is currently the largest, most secure distributive ledger technology (DLT) available in the world of technology. A DLT can be looked at as a huge, computer-based record keeper/book which has its entire data copied over every single device in use. What this implies is that every bit of data stored on the blockchain is universally available to its users without discretion and is not centralized, a quality that increases transparency exponentially. A very welcome feature blockchain brings with itself to DLT technology is unprecedented security. There are multiple reasons behind it. Scams are difficult on blockchain because a hash (or the public key) is derived by performing labyrinthine and irreversible mathematical operations on the private key. These operations are nearly impossible to decode. In addition to this, every block on the chain is unanimously approved, and for further security, rigorously time stamped, the details of which cannot be manipulated. Even if they were, it would be herculean to make the same changes on each system with blockchain installed.
Combining blockchain with social media would mean a new generation of privacy and security. Data users choose to upload on a blockchain-powered social media platform would be stored like blocks on a chain, and the same ‘hash,’ or public key decryption would be required if anybody wanted to manipulate data, which is next to impossible.
The benefits of blockchain-powered social media
- With enhanced privacy and security, it is easier for people to express their opinions. In polarised countries such as the US and India, where expressing dissent can send people to jail, if blockchain-powered social media is in place, people can disagree with the government with greater ease without fearing a loss of their freedom.
- This freedom, while securing individual rights, enhances the quality of discourse in society. When contrasting opinions are kept in front of each other and theories at loggerheads with each other are compared, opinions can be shaped around those differences, middle ground can be achieved, and the true stakeholders in situations can have their voices amplified.
- Basic security breaches that may occur in social media can reduce for the basic reason that hacking into blockchain is more difficult.
- Since traceability is very high, fraud can be debugged and tracked down quickly.
- Blockchain brings with itself native currency (with the avenue of creating more native modes of resource exchange). This enables much quicker transactions on social media than before. This, in turn, further supports local businesses.
- The native currency and ease of transaction have another community benefit. Crowdfunding or raising funds for causes has been made more convenient. Since people use social media in their day to day lives extensively, the quickest dissipation of information occurs on social media, and on the same platform, if the native currency can be used to donate, people have greater motivation to contribute.
Some examples of blockchain-powered social media platforms
- Steemit- they provide a unique feature of ‘tokens.’ On the publication of good content (judged by interaction by other users and votes), users earn ‘tokens’ with some real value in a certain amount. These ‘tokens’ push users to write good posts with relevant information. Further, this is a great platform for budding writers and content creators since they can get reality checks and even earn.
- Diaspora- they function on ‘pods.’ The ‘pods’ or information access stations of the network are distributed servers, independently owned and run. It is an example of a truly decentralized network where none of the data is stored on a central server. Anonymous logins are also permitted.
- Minds- this decentralized platform exercises absolutely zero censorship. It is one of the largest proponents of free speech amongst these platforms and has features very similar to Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc.
- All.me- this platform functions a lot like Pinterest and Instagram. Users upload pictures. Buying and selling of goods and services is commonplace, and it comes with a built-in payment structure. This, again, increases the ease for people starting their own businesses, local artists, etc.
- Earn- this platform works by giving its users a task. Like Quora, users are required to answer questions, participate in surveys, and as an incentive, complete a task is rewarded with payment using blockchain-powered bitcoin.
The challenge
How scalable blockchain is still a question. While it is true that a lot of tech giants, stock colossuses, and upcoming industries are using blockchain, amongst the common man, there are still doubts and confusions that prevail. Also, centralized social media still remains mainstream. There is no denying the popularity of Instagram and Twitter have, compared to decentralized community social media that a large number of people have sometimes never heard of.
Additionally, there are some risks involved when all control is community centered. Since the validity of nearly everything comes from the approval of users, wrongful validation can also be given. Support can be garnered for problematic statements and incidents, and with blockchain’s immutability, it cannot be undone/removed. Fake news can also wear the guise of opinion and do the rounds, causing harm and misguiding many people.
It also becomes manifold challenging to control hate speech and degrading language. When you look at the flip side of freedom of speech, it can help things such as white supremacy to prevail by encouraging racism, xenophobia, transphobia, homophobia, and the likes of them which are wrong but can be claimed to be ‘opinions’ of a section of society. Such hate speech can result in emotional agony and mental trauma for the concerned community. If these wrongful content materials also include calls for violence, and the community fails to act as a system of checks and balances, physical harm can also be meted out to people with lower social capital. An infamous example of such notoriety would be the racist slurs at Gab network.
There have been suggestions to contain such behavior using automated systems using machine learning such as Captcha, but the mechanism is yet to be perfected.
