SMR — Social Media Responsibility
Looks like Social media platforms are not able to get their act together. On one side, we have Elon Musk-led Twitter doing some funny things every week. On the other side, Meta, Instagram, and TikTok have been getting into the bad books of both regulators and the general public.
The European Commission said that by restricting competition from accessing the markets for online classified ads, Meta had violated antitrust laws of the European Union. In June 2021, the EC launched an inquiry into Meta to examine into alleged anticompetitive behavior of FB.
The EC objected to Meta’s integration of its personal social network with Facebook Marketplace, which enables users to advertise products for sale. Although this is a significant legal step against FB, it does not mean Meta is declared guilty already.
However, if the Commission still determines that there is enough evidence of a breach after a company has presented its case, it may have to change its business practices or pay a fine of up to 10% of its annual global revenue.
For Meta, which made $117.92 billion in annual revenues in 2021, that could mean a penalty worth as much as $11.8 billion.
In other news, a fresh lawsuit accuses Facebook of being complicit in political unrest in Africa and aims to hold the company accountable by calling for more than $2 billion in reparation monies and significant adjustments to content moderation strategies in the African continent.
The class-action case, which was filed in Nairobi, Kenya, accuses the corporation of violating more than ten articles of the Kenyan Constitution by monetizing the potential for hate and violence to spread in conflict-torn Ethiopia.
Apart from this, an Amnesty International report from earlier this year found that Meta contributed directly & indirectly to the atrocities perpetrated by the Myanmar military against the Rohingya people in 2017.
Concerns have grown among some scholars and researchers about the use of false information on Facebook to inflame ethnic and religious tensions in India, the largest market for the platform by the number of users.
It is we, the global citizenry, who make up these social media platforms. So, one thing as responsible social media users we should all be doing is “add some minimum filters” BEFORE we share any content.
- Do you know it is 100% true?
- Does it add some value to people?
Share any information only if you get a YES for such questions.
