Image: Daily Maverick
Faizel Patel – 02/11/2020
A senior research adviser for emerging threats in Africa at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) says there is a very fine balance of what social media platforms should allow users to share on their sites.
This comes after a French schoolteacher was beheaded in Paris last month and weeks later, another three people were killed in a church.
It was later revealed in press reports, that both he and his school were the focus of a heated social media campaign.
Speaking to Radio Islam, the ISS’ Karen Allen says social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook among others were set up as forums for conversation, engagement and freedom of expression.
“When you have a look at the amplification effect that social media has, it enables narratives whether they are extreme narratives or otherwise get incredible traction. On the basis of that, there is an argument that these are public publishing houses that consider their law as publishers and therefore must be subject to much, much tighter control.”
Allen says there must be a warning shot sounded to social media companies and society in general about the dangers of social media.
“It’s a very, very powerful platform to be able to exchange ideas which obviously is a very positive thing. But at a time when we are talking about cyber harms as well, by putting someone’s personal information on the public domain, not only is that unpleasant for them, you may feel they deserve it or not. It actually exposes that persons to the kind of cyber harms that we are seeing huge bouts of.”
Allen says while people engage and challenge issues on social media, they must be aware that by retweeting or sharing information they are giving the “most amazing oxygen and amplification” to a particular narrative whether they agree with it or not which can have real world consequences for people in real life.
Listen to the interview with Karen Allen
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