Freedom of speech in the hands of social media platform
The definition of freedom of speech is in question. Is it your freedom to share your opinion about anything thats happening around the world, to be shared anywhere that is open afterwards? You get the privilege to raise your voice or share an opinion about the things that might matter to you or might not matter to you. You won’t be jailed because, the democratic systems followed by nations around the globe have provided their citizens freedom of speech. But what is it that puts freedom of speech into question?
Social Media
In the modern world social media, platforms plays a major role by giving people the access to share an opinion or raise a voice against something without hesitation (unless you are in North Korea). Social media platforms are way neutral than any other media out there and they don’t monitor your content or remove your content to support any organisations, political parties or to the government itself. Apart from the challenges of controlling the spread of fake news, cyber security attacks and anti-terrorism activities, social media platforms are faced with a bigger yet complex challenge which brings a lot questions.
Imagine the President of United States of America getting banned by Twitter which is a platform used by several highly influential political leaders to raise their voice to share an opinion. Although the fact that Ex-President Donald Trump was removed for violating the rules of Twitter, pointing out that he used twitter to spread violence (as per twitters statement). At that time CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerburg raised an opinion saying that Facebook is not the arbiters of truth which was an indirect comment to Twitters decision on banning Donald trump.
Recently Facebook itself had to ban Donald Trump from Instagram which is a Facebook product. Although Twitter has banned Donald Trump permanently, Facebook suspended Trump’s account for two year with a note saying ” Facebook will not treat politicians account differently “.
Bottom line
It is very clear that the social media platforms doesn’t have a side. The protest against social media platforms controlling the freedom of speech is nothing but emotional. They don’t control freedom of speech, they just follow the policies which was accepted by you, me and billions of users who use this platform. Most of the cases happen when violence is being entertained directly or indirectly by the account holders and that is the strict policy maintained by every social media platforms in order to avoid the impact of violence or fake news that is being spread on the respective platforms.
You still have your freedom of speech, the question is whether you are ready to follow their policies or not.
