For this assignment, Open Blog Post, I am choosing to take a dive into whether or not social media companies should be regulated, like a utility company. First, my question is who regulates social media? What’s crazy about social media is that it has so much power, but unlike a firearm or drug companies, etc… there is no actual authority telling these platforms what they can and can’t do. Although social media platforms are required to follow the same rules as other companies, like fair business practices and truth in advertising, they are not regulated by one governmental agency.
I believe there should be a single source of overall regulation for social media. These companies have become so powerful and influential with not much publicly known about their algorithms and how they manipulate data — our data — to other’s advantage. Because having an account without any restrictions could be potentially detrimental. There should be some set rules in place that social media platforms and us, as users, need to abide by. This way, social media users know what to post and what not to post. It almost seems today that there are only a few regulations and most aren’t even followed. Having rules that are set in stone would be ideal.
