Task Force: Regulating Social Media Companies

Congratulations!

You have been hired to join the board of directors for the popular social media platform, Twitter. Your goal is to try and come up with a plan to regulate the content being published and avoid the spread of fake news. 

Why Are We Doing This?

The role of social media has increased dramatically in the last few years. Inevitably, this has led to a lot of social media users relying on certain social media platforms to obtain information about pop culture and current events/news. With this, has come the issue of spreading fake news or, “false news stories, often of a sensational nature, created to be widely shared or distributed for the purpose of generating revenue, or promoting or discrediting a public figure, political movement, company, etc.”  Here, we ask you to try and regulate the content being published on Twitter, in order to prevent misinformation, without infringing on someone’s freedom of press. 

Steps:

1. Before you begin, research information about how Twitter controls the information being published on its platform. What do other social media platforms do to control their output of information? What is the red-flagging system?  
2. Then, try to come up with a plan for how Twitter should regulate its social media platform.
   1. What will be allowed? What will be banned?
      1. For example, should promotions of political candidates be allowed?
   2. What kinds of advertisements will be allowed (i.e. vape commercials geared towards children, etc)?
   3. What are some instances of fake news you’ve seen on the media?
   4. How will you prevent the spread of fake news?
      1. Will you implement a fact-checking or flagging system on the platform? How? 
      2. Will you remove content or simply flag it? What will be the difference between content that needs to be flagged and content that needs to be removed? 
         1. How will you address concerns about freedom of press for content you believe should be removed?
3. Think through the possible objections about your plan that someone might have.
4. Share with the group and see if you can convince them to agree with the implementation of your social media plan for Twitter. 

Things to Keep in Mind:

•  You do not have to come up with an exhaustive list of guidelines for your plan. Choose a few that you are prepared to defend.