There has been a lot of commotion around X, TikTok, and Meta recently, and I couldn't help but share my opinion on what's happening. Being part of the generation that has grown on social media, I feel deeply connected to many of these platforms, hardly imagining my life without them. However, the recent global events have compelled me and my peers to reconsider our relationship with these platforms, limiting or fully boycotting them. For example, I have decided to delete Facebook, limit Instagram to once a week, and switch to Bluesky instead of Twitter.
Let me know what you think about this topic and whether you are currently boycotting any companies.
Sources can be found throughout the video.
Music by 9JackJack8 from Pixabay
Enquiries: acrosstheglobewithelvi@gmail.com
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/elvinanana.b...
#SocialMedia #SocialMediaBan #TikTokBan #DigitalFreedom #OnlineSafety #SocialMediaControl #BigTech #DigitalRights #Misinformation #NarrativeControl #BillionaireControl #OnlineRegulation #TikTok #Meta #Facebook #Instagram #Threads #ElonMusk #X #Bluesky #DigitalLiteracy #MentalHealth #TechEthics #YouthOnline #DataPrivacy #WhoControlsTheInternet #BanOrFix #TakeBackSocialMedia #SocialMediaReset
Let me know what you think about this topic and whether you are currently boycotting any companies.
Sources can be found throughout the video.
Music by 9JackJack8 from Pixabay
Enquiries: acrosstheglobewithelvi@gmail.com
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/elvinanana.b...
#SocialMedia #SocialMediaBan #TikTokBan #DigitalFreedom #OnlineSafety #SocialMediaControl #BigTech #DigitalRights #Misinformation #NarrativeControl #BillionaireControl #OnlineRegulation #TikTok #Meta #Facebook #Instagram #Threads #ElonMusk #X #Bluesky #DigitalLiteracy #MentalHealth #TechEthics #YouthOnline #DataPrivacy #WhoControlsTheInternet #BanOrFix #TakeBackSocialMedia #SocialMediaReset
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FunTranscript
00:00Social media platforms have been all over the news recently. For example, Australia wants
00:04to ban kids from Instagram. The US government tried and failed to ban TikTok and then it
00:09suddenly became an advertisement for Donald Trump. But let's not get too much into this for now.
00:20Elon Musk has turned Twitter or X into a megaphone for propaganda. Meanwhile, Meta,
00:27which owns Facebook and Instagram, has abandoned fact checking entirely. In the midst of this chaos,
00:34movements like Free Our Feeds have emerged calling for platforms free from billionaire control. So
00:40there's a lot going on and it's clear that social media is no longer a place where you share photos
00:46from your vacation or send memes to your friends. It's an immensely influential tool that shapes
00:52politics, culture and society. And it seems like politicians and other power hungry people are
00:59taking note of it. But as it falls into the hands of multi-billionaires and certain political forces,
01:05we have to ask ourselves, are we on the verge of losing control of the space entirely? And
01:11what can we do about it?
01:12So at its core, it's become very clear that social media isn't just about entertainment,
01:21it's about power. So we've seen TikTok, Instagram and X being capable to mobilize millions of people,
01:29shape political discourse and alter cultural norms. And this is exactly why they've become the focus of
01:35intense scrutiny and manipulation by governments, billionaires, political forces and corporations
01:43to serve their own agenda. Let's take the US TikTok bank, for example, which is so fascinating to me.
01:50Initially, the US government positioned it as a security measure, a national security measure to
01:56counter Chinese intelligence that is collecting user data. However, the way it was all executed was
02:05really interesting. It told us a completely different story. So the actual ban by the
02:08government couldn't be enforced. But what TikTok did was it pretended to shut it down for 12 hours
02:14to later thank, actually thank Donald Trump twice for basically saving the app. Now, I want you all
02:22to put all the pieces together, because what this effectively means is that every social media
02:26platform, mass social media platform in the United States has been taken over by the right wing,
02:30with the exception of blue sky, the blue sky is still very small, relatively. So when I say put the
02:34pieces together, Elon Musk took over Twitter, and there's open reporting, it's pretty obvious as
02:40well, that they have manipulated the algorithms, they've artificially manipulated the algorithms
02:44to boost right wing content on X and to amplify harassment. Then you have Meta. So you have Mark
02:51Zuckerberg, and I know we're on Instagram right now, hi, saying that they're basically also bending the
02:56knee to Trump with their changes to fact checking, regardless on how effective that was in the first
03:00place. It's an open signal. And that TikTok is now saying, hey, we are agreeing, we will use
03:08our push notification system for all 170 million American users to promote Donald Trump. Just
03:13understand that government announcements like this with companies, they never name politicians,
03:17they will usually name law or policy. TikTok is making explicit agreement to do this. And if I were
03:21a betting person, they probably are making a deal with Donald Trump to not just use these push
03:25notifications, they probably would consider algorithmic changes, which is ironic, because
03:29the time when people voted for the tick tock ban, there was a lot it was in the environment was
03:33because it was a lot of pro Palestinian content. And that argument was being used as being somehow
03:37anti American, which you know, human rights, I guess supporting human rights is somehow bad.
03:42By doing so it positioned itself as a right wing ally. And many suspect that TikTok now has been
03:48co-opted by the right wing in the US. But let's look at the nature of the ban itself. Why was
03:55it even so important to ban TikTok? TikTok has had undeniable global impact in the past few years.
04:02It has helped to raise voices of activists for Palestine, for example, it has fueled climate
04:07change movements, it has shed light on societal inequalities, and so many other issues that are
04:14going on in the world. This makes TikTok incredibly empowering, yet threatening. And it explains why the
04:20governments worldwide are trying to tame it. Now let's go back to Chinese interference and
04:25all that stuff. Let's take a look at Timo, which is another Chinese owned app that collects vast
04:30amounts of user data. Unlike TikTok, no one is planning to ban Timo for now. And this is because it's
04:37not a tool for mobilizing political discourse. So the first point that I wanted to make here is pretty
04:42clear. Social media scrutiny is not just about privacy and other issues. It's mostly about controlling
04:49narratives because it has become this incredibly powerful tool that can mobilize, empower and
04:56amplify voices. This one's for the mums and dads. The situation in Australia highlights a different
05:02dimension of this debate, the cultural and societal impact that social media has on our society. The
05:09Australian government is basically proposing to ban kids under 16 from using social media platforms like
05:16Instagram, citing direct correlation between social media use and mental health issues. The problem that
05:22a lot of people are mentioning is that banning social media outright might not be as effective as it might
05:27seem. Just like we've seen with many other attempts to ban things like abortion or drugs, it might not
05:33always work the way we want it. Because banning something might bring people into the shadows and
05:39kids might start going to unregulated platforms or using VPN to bypass the ban. So it's really hard to
05:48predict how effective it will be and whether it will be effective at all. The deeper issue here is that
05:53teens are turning to social media because a lot of offline spaces where they could connect and
05:59be creative are disappearing. School budgets are being cut, youth programs are underfunded all over the world,
06:06and this leaves kids with very few meaningful ways to connect. The key here is to address the root cause,
06:12which is the societal failure to create spaces where young people can thrive outside of screens.
06:20And the reason why I'm bringing all of this up in the context of this video is to make the following
06:25point. Social media has immense cultural and societal power. This has been extremely evident in the past
06:32years, but what has changed now is that governments are taking measures to control the influence of the
06:39platforms. Social media tycons should be held responsible in their algorithms, poison our society.
06:45Now, recently we've seen a lot of examples of different forces trying to take control and
06:50politically weaponize social media. For example, under Elon Musk, that name makes me shiver.
06:57Anyway, under that guy, X has become a playground for conspiracy theories, hate speech, bot accounts,
07:09all that stuff. And of course, Elon Musk himself is regularly blessing us with right-wing endorsement,
07:15for example, supporting AFD in Germany, which isn't so surprising coming from a guy who was raised during
07:21apartheid in South Africa. But anyway, Meta isn't far behind. Zuckerberg has announced that its company
07:28will replace independent fact checking with crowdsourced community nodes, just like we have it already in X.
07:36Finally, we're going to work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world
07:41that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more.
07:45And the problem with this is that even though sometimes it works fine,
07:48quite often crowdsourced moderation is prone to manipulation, it's very slow, and it can be
07:57ineffective. And at its core, a lot of people believe that it was just an attempt by Meta to appease
08:01to Donald Trump and his allies by further aligning the platform with right-wing ideologies.
08:09And I've already talked about how the right-wing has taken over social media all over the world.
08:14You can check my video if you want to. But the problem with this type of decisions,
08:18like the one by Meta, is that they benefit the erosion of truth and accountability. They lead to
08:24the widespread of conspiracy theories, fear-mongering, disinformation, just like we've seen worldwide.
08:31And of course, the deeper issue here isn't just about individual platforms, but it's about who
08:35controls them. When billionaires like Musk and Zuckerberg control these platforms, they wield immense
08:43power over public discourse. And this can be incredibly dangerous when these billionaires have
08:49very specific agendas on their mind. That's why there are campaigns like Free Our Feeds calling for
08:55an alternative social media platform without billionaire control. But this raises a question,
09:02what could be a good alternative? And this question became especially important in the past weeks since
09:07a lot of people decided to boycott Twitter, Meta, Amazon and other companies. Some suggested alternatives
09:15like Blue Sky, which I'm trying out myself. Others suggest EU alternatives, for example, Mastodon.
09:22I'm also incredibly lucky to be in the EU, where governments regulate platforms more heavily,
09:27enforcing transparency rules and limiting monopolies. And even though it's not a perfect system,
09:33there's a lot of interference, for example, recently by Moscow in the German elections through Twitter,
09:37it still works in the way that the system prevents any individual or company from having total control
09:43and monopoly over certain platforms. And of course, at their core, all of these platforms aren't designed
09:51for public good. They are corporations for profit, with their algorithms built to prioritize sensationalism
09:59and exaggeration over truth and substance. And I fully believe that as long as billionaires hold
10:05total control over these platforms, social media will become even more a tool for exploitation.
10:13You can always take your Nazi salutes and your masculine energy and go back.
10:17So in an ideal world, we would have social media platforms that are not controlled by individuals or
10:23groups that have certain political interests. They would not contribute to misinformation and
10:30manipulation. And they would also not lead to exacerbated mental health issues. But how can
10:37all of this be achieved? I think we all agree that bans wouldn't really work with this because,
10:43as I mentioned before, that would simply lead to people moving to unregulated spaces. And we don't want
10:49that. But there are certain areas that we need to focus on. First of all, I do believe that social
10:53media platforms need stricter content moderation and transparency. Platforms need to be more open about
11:00how their algorithms work, but they also need to take bigger responsibility over the spread of harmful
11:08content. As I mentioned in my previous video, social media platforms need to be responsible for stopping
11:14the spreading of harmful content and misinformation and manipulation, fearmongering and conspiracy
11:19theories. And this can be partly enforced by governments, but implemented by platforms themselves.
11:27And I absolutely believe in government oversight, as long as it's democratic, of course,
11:32because social media platforms need to be regulated like public utilities, ensuring accountability
11:38without stifling free expression. And to help with digital literacy, users need to be equipped with
11:46tools to navigate online spaces critically, to identify misinformation, to resist manipulation,
11:53and this could be partly done at schools or universities. Ultimately, it's really important to
11:58rethink who gets to control these platforms and how, because we can't just leave them in the hands of
12:04multi-billionaires with their own agendas. It's been really scary to see how social
12:08media platforms are falling under the control of authoritarian governments and the greedy
12:12billionaires. We're really risking to lose the democratic power of these spaces. Living in the
12:19EU, I can't help but feel a bit relieved that regulations here provide at least some protection against
12:25corporations. But even here, the battle over social media is far from over. We clearly can't live
12:32without social media anymore, so it's crucial to take back control of it. I would love to know what you
12:37think. Should governments ban platforms like TikTok? Should we hold tech billionaires accountable? And where
12:44have you found refuge from platforms like Twitter or Instagram? And that's it for today. Thank you so
12:50much for watching this video and see you in the next one!
13:07you
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