Social Media and the Fraught Question of Regulation

“But, with that said, many of the problems that are blamed on social media run much deeper and require broader societal solutions than just legal controls on social media.”

In February of 2011, former President Barack Obama hosted a dinner with American technology executives at the White House. Lauded as the first American president to “get” that the Internet could be a tool for social progress and democratic engagement, President Obama maintained a close relationship with Silicon Valley and held generally positive views about the emergence of social media. The biggest issues surrounding social media, according to the early Obama administration, concerned net neutrality and broadband access (i.e. how to make the Internet and social media more open and accessible to all).

Back then, it was hard to argue otherwise. The Web 2.0, which included Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, was viewed as a means by which people could connect with distant friends and acquaintances. Users could also interact live with society at-large, while bringing the tools of content creation and information to one’s fingertips. All of this was welcomed in a liberal, democratic society.

These tools were seen as means to empower the people, to give a voice to the unheard masses, and to achieve popular organization and democratization across the world. In 2009, after a controversial election in Iran that saw the reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, opposition members used social media to organize and maintain the largest protests in the Islamic Republic since the Revolution of 1979. Two years later, social media activity acted as a catalyst for the Arab Spring protests that called for greater democracy in long-standing autocratic states in the Middle East. That same year, it was key to propelling the Occupy movement.