Animation From The Atlantic Shows Us How Social Media Could Harm Democracy

This animation from The Atlantic shows us how social media could threaten our democracy and end free speech forever.

Companies like Facebook and Twitter have come under fire in recent years for allowing hate speech to be posted on their sites. In an effort to stop these kinds of posts, both of them have upped their efforts to censor or block users who are posting harmful content. However, some have criticised the fact that the companies are doing the censoring themselves and aren’t seeking any help from independent bodies. This means that they’re fully in control of what’s “OK”.

This has lead to all sorts of different people being censored that aren’t actually posting hate speech. In fact, some of the people who have been blocked were actually posting content that was against hate speech. This animation tells us how having Facebook and Twitter decide what counts as dangerous language is a slippery slope and could erode our freedoms when it comes to speech and different views. It’s a great animation that shines a light on a tricky and complicated subject.

Social Media|The Atlantic|Animation