Imagining Alternatives
19.5. Imagining Alternatives#
Now try thinking about different ways online social media could work.
Are these alternatives good ideas? 🤷
Reflect on these prompts and try to work out what the consequences would be for different ways of social media working:
What if government regulations said that social media sites weren’t allowed to make money based on personal data / targeted advertising?
What other business models could they use? How would social media sites be different?
What if government regulations were made to encourage a free market by requiring that users could switch social media sites easily (interoperability). How would this work?
Would you be able to move all your data? Would you still be able to see the content your friends post on the site you used to be on?
What if there were a social media site funded by the government as a government service (e.g., democratic socialism)?
What could this social media site do differently? What do you think would work well, what would work poorly?
Private companies are allowed to restrict speech in ways government entities are not. How would this impact content moderation if government funds were used?
What if social media sites were publicly funded or crowd-funded (like NPR for radio, and PBS for TV, Wikipedia)? Note: Mastodon is trying to do this.