Earlier this year, a deepfake impersonating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spread on social media – with Zelenskyy supposedly asking Ukrainians to surrender to Russia.
South Africa needs a multi-pronged strategy for building peaceful, sustainable neighbourhoods, communities, and a nation where the rule of law prevails.
There’s a tension between facilitating free and fair debate on social media, and businesses’ bottom line. And it must be resolved with the public interest in mind.
Musk has long touted Twitter’s potential as an open and inclusive ‘town square’ for public discourse – but the reality is social media platforms were never meant to fulfil this role.
Twitter, more than other social media platforms, fosters real-time discussion about events as they unfold. That could change now that Musk has gained control of the company.
Twitter, more than other social media platforms, fosters real-time discussion about events as they unfold. That could change if Musk gains control of the company.
Facebook benefits financially from misinformation spreading on its platform. As long as it puts profits ahead of public good, the tilting of the political landscape will persist.
Having an end-to-end encrypted messaging ‘ecosystem’ is a great way for Facebook to evade the full wrath of the law. It has come at a convenient time, too.
The platform also took down another 2,000 communities, including left-leaning groups. The move comes just months ahead of the 2020 US presidential election.
Twitter’s proposed policy would result in the prolific spread of fabricated, but highly realistic images and videos. This could allow widespread misinformation on the platform.
Sometimes it feels like everybody on social media is fighting about what’s “right” and what’s “wrong”. Well, figuring out why we all have such unique opinions is now helping experts tackle fake news.
While the “Christchurch Call” summit has made concrete progress, we need to keep up the pressure on social media companies to become more transparent and accountable.