Sir, – Much has been written recently about the accountability of social media companies and the need to regulate their responsibilities around uploaded content. Certainly, there is a need to regulate content and persuade such companies to act quickly to remove harmful or offensive material.
However, there is a danger in assuming that, once this is done, the problems will be resolved. It also fits into an all-too-human response to problems: someone else needs to do “something” about this.
Social media is a relatively recent phenomenon (in the last 20 years), and it seems to trigger something within the human psyche. Some of us wish to lead and communicate our beliefs to a wider audience and seek self-affirmation. Before 2000, this might have involved writing letters (such as this) or perhaps standing on a soapbox in a public park.
The advent of social media has turbocharged this behaviour in a way that was not expected. For example, The Irish Times allowed readers to post comments on online articles until, in the end, it terminated the feature.
RM Block
Even more recently, the condolences section of RIP.ie became a battleground. I don’t believe that either The Irish Times or RIP.ie have any algorithmic features at play to foster such behaviour. Anyone who has been part of even a simple messaging or chat group will probably have observed similar behaviour.
There is a need for regulation to help mitigate some of the worst-offending posts, but to assume that this will be a solution, given the breadth and scale of the problem, is either naive or an attempt to jump on a bandwagon for political gain.
I can’t profess to have a solution to this issue (other than to ban all online messaging platforms, which would be silly). – Yours, etc,
LIONEL BARKER
Sandymount,
Dublin 4.
