Regulations on Media Social Media

¶ … representatives of the social media sector have faced growing complaints about their lack of provision of privacy to users. In particular, users have complained about a lack of privacy in disclosure of information of users to third party individuals.

Zuckerberg, innovator of Facebook, promised attempts to ensure greater privacy, but most users are skeptical about his intent to deliver. The complaints have culminated in further cause for concern as lack of privacy results in possible deceptive trade practices. Earlier this week, fifteen privacy groups filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and senator Schumer urged the FTC to draft guidelines for social media in order to protect their user's privacy.

Actually, as with all issues, my opinion regarding whether or not the government should intervene in ensuring that social media place more regulatory controls over the protection of privacy on social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn is mixed. There are two sides to every issue, and the same applies here too.

On the one hand, Facebook, for one, has a reputation of, over and again, promising to implement greater privacy controls and then 'conveniently' forgetting their promise. In the meantime, the issue just escalates and this may have an incremental weakening effect on people's social trust for others with an extreme, though not impossible situation, of national chaos and distrust as a result. The latter is foreseeable mainly due to the opportunity that unscrupulous people take in gaining access to other's privileged and private information and scamming them.

Facebook has a pattern of seeking forgiveness rather than asking for permission. Since organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation are frustrated and angry as a result, they have resorted to drafting online petitions that call for a series of rules to be put into effect that would regulate social media venues such as Facebook. Examples of these regulations include the following: (1) The Right to Informed Decision-Making; (2) The Right to Control -- users should control use and disclosure of their information and (3) The Right to Leave -- users should have the right to leave or delete their data as they see fit.

The government should penalize violation of these regulation, but involved attorneys such as Marcia Hofmann sees little hope of such regulations or adherence to these regulations ever occurring since the social media is a moving target that constantly transforms itself according to their latest innovative ideas.

Nonetheless, the need for intervention is great. That is one side of the issue.

The other side can be argued as follows:

People who are worried about infringement of their privacy should simply refrain from using the sites. They are well-aware of the fact that these sites deal with exposing individuals to others and with generating social connections. People can either create an alibi for themselves (although these don't always help), or simply stay away.

Many users have, in fact, adopted the later route when becoming concerned. These are the rules of social media and consumers, if they want to belong, have to either follow the rules or sign off.

Finding information about others may be a positive factor. It will stop our government from becoming another Orwellian 1984. Great change in fact has come about through social media and many times social media has succeeded in exposing others and in correcting injustice when media and attorneys either were uninformed or refused to become invoked. Change.org, for instance, is one organization that relies heavily on the effects of social media particularly in this area.