Okay, so, with my decade+ of experience of being on social media, I've noticed a trend within recent years about pretty much all social platforms. I think there's a critical mass of users on a platform where it becomes impossible to properly enforce. Inevitably, there will be a sheer volume of bad actors that no matter what the platform does, cannot stop completely and it becomes public knowledge/source of scrutiny.
There isn't a single large platform I can name that doesn't have the problem of toxic behavior, child abuse/exploitation, NSFW rings, (the kind that aren't tagged/gated properly) etc. Doesn't matter what their moderation policies/enforcement is. It doesn't matter if a platform like #Discord files millions of NCMEC reports or bans millions of accounts a year. There's simply too many malicious users to handle and it's impossible to prevent them from coming back in some form or another or new ones joining the platform.
Sure, if you have say, 10,000 users, that's way easier for a small team of mods to handle, but what about 1 million? 10 million? 100+ million? There's no way a company/organization can afford a team to handle that sheer volume of communication and interaction, and we all know automated systems are deeply flawed and clearly do not stop the problem. Inevitably, a larger and larger number of bad actors slip through the cracks. Those cracks widen as more users join and moderation systems become increasingly strained. Regarding the NCMEC bit, Discord alone files over 500,000 reports, do you seriously think the NCMEC has the resources to look into every report and do something about it? Obviously not. And that's just Discord.
It's a huge reason why punitive actions don't work well, nor things like telling parents to monitor their kids. There's simply too many to keep track of all at once, and it's why I stress the importance of educational methods when it comes to protecting people. Education is a form of preventative measure instead of all the reactive ones we see on these platforms. Teaching a kid why this kind of content is harmful, how to avoid it, what to do if they do come across it, how to not get sucked into it or become a bad actor themself, etc will do way more than just a losing arms race of updating moderation systems and filters. It better addresses the cause rather than just the symptom.
All of this is simply the consequence of mass-centralization and the network effect on steroids. It's easier than ever before to connect with so many people and the possibility for interaction-- good or bad exponentially increases. Until eventually, it becomes unsustainable and causes huge swaths of harm.
#Essay #LongPost #Ramblings #SocialMedia #Commentary #Centralization #Reddit #Tumblr #YouTube #Roblox #Twitter #Facebook #Instagram #TikTok
