{"id":717,"date":"2020-02-06T00:35:24","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T21:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/?p=717"},"modified":"2022-10-13T16:10:48","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T13:10:48","slug":"how-free-are-we-in-social-media-we-are-in-chains-even-in-the-virtual-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/2020\/02\/06\/how-free-are-we-in-social-media-we-are-in-chains-even-in-the-virtual-world\/","title":{"rendered":"How Free Are We in Social Media? We Are in Chains Even in the Virtual World"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Xueying Ma<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This blog post was produced as part of the course \u201cSocial Media, Ideologies, and Ethics in the United States\u201d at the University of Turku.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Rousseau <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humans have fought\nfor freedom for centuries, and they have made much progress, especially nowadays\nwhen social media is playing a more and more important role in\ndaily life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no doubt\nthat social media has given us a platform to express ourselves more freely.\nUnder the UGC (user-generated content<\/em>)\nmodel of social media, everyone has the chance to voice their opinions and debate.\nIt has been a powerful tool for many to fight for their rights, and it provides\nmore opportunities for people to organize activist movements. People are\nrelying more and more on social media platforms to express themselves and\nparticipate in social or political debates. Many campaigns have been organized through\nsocial media across the world, such as #Metoo,\n#NeverAgain, #BlackLivesMatter, and many other online activist movements. In\nsocial media, more people are encouraged to fight for their rights and speak up\nto help others. This is a huge advantage of social media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"IMG_256\"
Image: kldrivertraining.com<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But how much freedom do we have on social media? In fact, freedom is also limited by many things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For one thing, as frequent users of social\nmedia, we must obey the ethical principles of online communities. Anonymity on\nsocial media brings about more and more ethical challenges. Limitless freedom\nwill do harm to the environment of the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the UGC feature of social media, cyberbullying\nhas always been a severe issue and it has led to a lot of tragedies. People are\nable to bully others online because of the lack of scrutiny and regulation.\nThey may say rude things to innocent people just for fun or to vent their\ndissatisfaction in life, utilizing the anonymity of social media. Online\nbullying disturbs the victims\u2019 daily life and can do mental harm. There are\nmany forms of cyberbullying, one of the worst I know of is to publish or post other\npeople\u2019s private information online or threaten to do so. Sounds scary but it\nis not uncommon. It is a huge ethical challenge that this kind of freedom makes\neveryone on social media concerned about their privacy and safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to cyber-bullying, people post\nother immoral things online and refer to their freedom of speech. The \u201cfreedom\nof speech\u201d argument can be a dangerous weapon if it is used to disseminate racial\nor religious hatred or to incite discrimination. This can cause a lot of harm\nto the safety of the internet. Although we support the right to free speech, it\ndoesn\u2019t mean you are not responsible for what you say or post online. Daryl\nMorey, the general manager of the NBA basketball team Houston Rockets, recently\ntweeted about the protests in Hong Kong. The tweet caused a large-scale backlash\nand lead to much antipathy towards the NBA in China. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, media companies and\ngovernments also have control over social media. According to a survey by the Pew\nResearch Center, the majority of Americans say that they think social media\ncompanies have too much control over the news on their sites. Almost all\nAmericans \u2013 about nine in ten \u2013 recognize that social media companies have some\ncontrol over the news. Many social media users are concerned about the \u201cfilter\nbubble\u201d \u2013 that they will be trapped in echo chambers and able to see only what\nthe media companies want them to see. This leads to many people distrusting social\nmedia and feeling limited online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"IMG_256\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Since June 2019, under a State Department\npolicy, visa applicants to the United States are required to submit any\ninformation about social media accounts they have used in the past five years. Aside\nfrom social media platforms based in the U.S. \u2013 such as Facebook, Flicker,\nGoogle+, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit, Tumblr, Twitter, and YouTube \u2013 applicants\nare also asked about their activity on international platforms, such as China\u2019s\nDouban, QQ, and Sina Weibo. Many people feel pressured under this policy\nbecause they think their privacy will be violated. The American Civil Liberties\nUnion has voiced opposition, saying that \u201cthere is also no evidence that such\nsocial media monitoring is effective or fair, especially in the absence of\ncriteria to guide the use of social media information in the visa adjudication\nprocess.\u201d Although it is said that this policy is about the country\u2019s safety\nand anti-terrorism, more and more people feel there is less freedom and democracy\neven on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all, even on social media there are\nnot only ethical codes but also companies or governments with control over the users.\nEveryone should be aware of the fact that they can never gain absolute freedom\non social media, and they should stay alert and critical to all the information\nonline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Americans\nAre Wary of the Role Social Media Sites Play in Delivering the News(https:\/\/www.journalism.org\/2019\/10\/02\/americans-are-wary-of-the-role-social-media-sites-play-in-delivering-the-news\/)<\/li>
  2. US\nNow Requiring Social Media Details From Most Visa Applicants\n(https:\/\/www.voanews.com\/usa\/us-now-requiring-social-media-details-most-visa-applicants)<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Xueying Ma This blog post was produced as part of the course \u201cSocial Media, Ideologies, and Ethics in the United States\u201d at the University of Turku. Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. \u2014Rousseau Humans have fought for freedom for centuries, and they have made much progress, especially nowadays when social media […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19734,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-students-blog-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19734"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":726,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions\/726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}