After knowing how much most of the social platforms have control over their users’ persona, valuable information, and data, some are still using these platforms in unlimited ways. For example, through a specific website, one can see how many posts, information are being uploaded to the internet such as emails, Instagram and Facebook posts, tweets and all. For example, while I am writing this blog post, 2,460,237,290 users are active on Facebook.
After reading an article written by Isobel Cockerell about how Instagram shuts down every Iranian account after Soleiman’s death. It recalls how when each person would post something related to Soleiman’s death, the user’s account and all posts got deleted immediately. Even all the journalists’ accounts have been taken now, which means Iranians freedom of speech has been taken away from them.
A video by the NBC news was posted on youtube back in 2018 that talks about how Facebook helped Trump in winning the elections by collecting data from their users so they can know to whom they might vote. This happened without the consent of the users, so what we, the people, can do for a change is to demand a right of data protection such as Europe where if the government requires data they will have to ask for the user’s consent. The change begins with the people, al;l we need to do is speak up and demand our privacy and freedom of speech. And maybe find an alternative applications to use other than Facebook or Whatsapp Or Instagram since the last two are owned by Facebook.
References:
Internet Live Stats – Internet Usage & Social Media Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.internetlivestats.com/
Instagram shuts down Iranian accounts after Soleimani’s death. (2020, January 18). Retrieved from https://www.codastory.com/authoritarian-tech/instagram-iran-soleimani/
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