Despite the increasing importance of social media in the world in recent years, as an easy way to communicate, exchange experiences, spread news and interact with it, it has become, in many cases, a refuge for extremist and terrorist groups to spread their ideas, and a means for organized crime and drug trafficking groups to facilitate the practice of Their activities, and accordingly, began to grow louder about the need for governments to intervene to maintain public security by imposing more control over the work of these platforms, and to take advantage of the important information they provide in tracking criminal networks of all kinds.
These calls received a strong boost, after the storming of the Capitol by supporters of former US President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021, an event that fundamentally changed the relationship between the White House and Silicon Valley; On January 8, Twitter suspended Trump's account on its platform, and a number of other social media platforms followed suit.
At the end of March 2021, the executives of the giants of technology companies “Facebook”, “Twitter” and “Google” appeared before Congress for the first time since the riots in the American capital last January, defending their strategy of self-regulating their platforms, despite the increasing dangers that result from the self-regulation of those platforms.
Ongoing risk
According to many, social media has contributed greatly to the spread of hate speech, and this has recently been demonstrated in the United States, in light of the great political polarization, the spread of conspiracy theories, and the accompanying clear calls for violence.
On the other hand, many illegal activities are organized through social media, in addition to many criminal networks, such as money laundering networks, drug dealers, human trafficking networks and others. Hence, social media has become a platform for illegal trade and activities.
 |
| Interregional Strategic Analytics |
In the same context, the means of communication have failed in the face of terrorism and extremism, and Facebook published an article in June 2017 entitled “Hard Questions… How to Fight Terrorism?” In this article, Monica Bickert, director of global policy management at Facebook, and director of counterterrorism policy Brian Fishman; The platform seeks to be a “hostile place for terrorists,” adding that “Facebook” will “remove terrorist elements and content supporting them.” Despite this assertion against terrorism, the spread of a lot of extremist material on Facebook does not indicate that the platform has made a great effort in this matter.
It is also easy to reopen accounts that are proven to be involved in a terrorist act, or to violate the rules of the platform once they are closed. It is also easy to create fake accounts, obfuscate the identity of those responsible for these accounts, and use the application settings for general disguise.. All of this confirms the failure of Facebook in the face of terrorism and extremism.
potential gain
Given the importance of social media, and its wide spread worldwide, among all groups, there are many security gains for these platforms in tracking and controlling criminal elements; Although social media platforms bear some responsibility for the spread of hate speech and the promotion of violence, the storming of the Capitol is the most famous; These platforms have also proven to be an integral part of the efforts to prosecute those involved in these attacks and prove the charges against them. Individual users got to know the troublemakers through these platforms.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States is searching for new evidence on Facebook and Twitter that could indict the accused in those events.
On the other hand, the publication of some information by criminal networks and terrorist organizations on social media is a great opportunity that may enable the security services to track the movements of these networks and identify their members. Which helps to abort their plans and control them, in preparation for their trial.
privacy concerns
Despite the significant security gains involved in government intervention in censoring and controlling the work of social media, and limiting the platforms’ self-regulation; There are many concerns raised by some, including the violation of users’ privacy.
Social media companies are reluctant to allow law enforcement and security agencies to monitor some active accounts on these platforms; Because this matter could raise a great public uproar, with regard to violating users' privacy, which is contrary to the message of those platforms, and could expose them to many prosecutions.
Moreover, some argue that allowing states and security services to interfere in the work of social media; It opens the way for the state to monitor political opponents, and not be limited to criminal networks and terrorist elements.
In general, hate speech, advocacy of violence and terrorism, in addition to various types of illegal activities, are spread on social media to a noticeable extent, which social media platforms have failed to curb; This prompted some to call for states to intervene more in limiting the self-regulation of these platforms, and in a way that contributes to achieving societal protection; Currently, countries cannot access user data via social media, except with court orders, which is a complex and time-consuming process.
However, social media companies fear that countries will use these matters as an excuse to invade users' privacy and spy on political opponents, which is why they are very reluctant to accept calls to limit self-regulation of their platforms.
Add Comments