Opinion Let’s talk filters

It seems the usual answers — tinkering with the algorithms and saying that the echo chamber on the internet merely mirrors society — are not going to be enough.

Facebook has announced it is building a tool that will allow its users to see if and what Russian propaganda they have followed, particularly during the 2015-2016 US presidential election campaign. The social media giant’s attempt to “protect people from bad actors who try to undermine our democracy” has come after it has been under fire, along with Google and Twitter, from US legislators who feel the tech platforms were used to plant “fake news” by foreign actors. In fact, since the election, debates over whether and how to regulate the social media space have been growing. It seems the usual answers — tinkering with the algorithms and saying that the echo chamber on the internet merely mirrors society — are not going to be enough.

Unlike print or even television media, the growth of the internet has far outpaced attempts at regulating it. The freedom and voice that social media platforms have afforded users will likely be curbed if governments begin to police the space more than is absolutely necessary. Section 66a of the IT Act, for example, was used by multiple governments in India to silence dissent. On the other hand, the risk that anonymously paid advertising can be used to spread propaganda and fix elections is tangible. The solution, perhaps, lies in following in the steps of traditional publishing outfits.

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Facebook, Google and Twitter are, like most platforms and publishers, profit-making enterprises. Fundamentally, what they sell is readers, viewers or users to advertisers. Given that users’ data is the product, it is unsurprising that some people, and now even policy-makers, assume that concerns like privacy and veracity of content are not of primary concern to social media companies. To lay to rest those apprehensions, it is important that filters be implemented by the companies themselves. Facebook, for example, is now the largest publisher in the world. It must have editors, whether human or AI, so that no government has an excuse to interfere with the internet.