Social Media Should Be Regulated Essay Sample

Over the years, social media has grown dramatically and the number of social media users is increasing. With this escalation, more issues are being seen about why social media should be regulated, however, there is yet to be an impactful solution on how to manage social media usage. In the articles “Should Social Media Platforms Be Regulated?”, and “Why self-regulation of social media could work — the financial services model”, authors Jonathan Wareham and M. Todd Henderson argue over the idea of why social media should be regulated. Through the use of experience, providing clear examples, and providing a solution, the article “Why self-regulation of social media could work — the financial services model” delivers a superior argument on how social media should be regulated.

In the article “Should Social Media Platforms Be Regulated?”, author Jonathan Wareham states that social media should indeed be regulated. Wareham, a professor at Esade’s department of operations, innovations, and data sciences, influences the audience's opinions with his knowledge of analytics and data information over social media. He supplies the readers with information about how social media platforms use social media users' information and that social media platforms are only placing regulations when necessary. His conscientious tone sways the reader to believe that regulations on social media should be implemented immediately and that users have little to no idea how much social media negatively affects them and their beliefs.

M. Todd Henderson, author of the article “Why self-regulation of social media could work — the financial services model”, also states reasons why social media should be regulated, however, he also provides a solution. Because of his book, The Trust Revolution: How the Digitization of Trust Will Revolutionize Business and Government, and his experience working with The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), “an independent, non-governmental agency that sets the rules of conduct for stockbrokers, investigate misconduct and brings enforcement actions when behaviors fall short of the ideal (Henderson 2)”, he conveys as a credible source that leads the reader to believe that social media can be regulated through a non-governmental, independent body. Additionally, Henderson provides evidence that this idea could accomplish the goal by explaining that the FINRA is apolitical, as well as mentioning that trust in the government and social media platforms is eroding and that something needs to be done to fix the situation.

Although both articles provide adequate reasoning as to why social media should be regulated, the article “Why self-regulation of social media could work — the financial services model” is more successful at arguing the topic. By beginning the article with “Trust in social media companies is eroding (Henderson 1)”, Henderson grabs the reader's attention and leaves them wanting to know more about why trust is decreasing. He then goes on and mentions relevant information about the White House Social Media Summit in 2019, and how social media is impacting conservative voices and supporters of the president, which exemplifies how social media can be biased and limit particular viewpoints. He also mentions how social media platforms like Facebook are attempting to increase trust on internet platforms, however, it is not enough to rebuild trust and that there needs to be more done to regulate these platforms. Likewise, the article “Should Social Media Platforms be Regulated?” mentions a political event, the 2016 presidential election, however, Wareham fails to specifically explain how social media impacted the elections and does not provide further reasoning on why regulations on social media could decrease concerns about public regulation on topics over the government and politics.

Furthermore, Henderson's argument over how regulating social media should be regulated is stronger because he provides a solution. By including a one-sentence paragraph that reads, “So what’s the alternative? (Henderson 1)”, he is able to transition the argument from the problem to a solution. His solution states that in the absence of government regulation, it is necessary to rely on self-regulation and that the creation of an independent body would “identify the community standards that will best advance society’s interest on the internet, promulgate a community standards code across platforms, and ultimately build the capacity to monitor and enforce the standards (Henderson 2)”. He states a clear solution to the argument with significant reasoning, unlike Wareham, who again fails to strengthen the argument by only stating that “social media platforms should be regulated to minimize their social cost” and does not provide further solutions. By providing a solution to the problem, Henderson is able to affect the reader's thoughts and influence their opinion towards believing that social media can and should be regulated.

Another argument that shows why the article “Why self-regulation of social media could work — the financial services model” provides a stronger argument is when Henderson clarifies that some social media platforms have attempted to regulate and increase trust on their platforms, however, their efforts are not enough to rebuild public trust or improve regulators, which helps the reader understand that something large and influential needs to occur that will effectively allow social media to be regulated. Also, by mentioning that “The First Amendment hamstrings government’s ability to regulate speech (Henderson 1)” Henderson informs the reader that the government's assistance will not be the most convenient solution. In comparison, Wareham does not mention any sort of possible attempts social media platforms have taken at regulating social media, nor includes any ways social media can be regulated. In Wareham’s article, he only references ways social media is negatively affecting society, such as how social media platforms are using users' information to monetize their interactions, and although his evidence is practical, it is not sufficient in the sense that he does not provide a counterargument or further argue how social media can be regulated.

Additionally, when reading the article “Should Social Media Platforms Be Regulated?”Wareham does a poor job arguing his claim. When stating reasoning like “Explicit rules about what is or is not allowed on these platforms are implemented only when necessary (Wareham 1)”, he fails to provide examples, and when he states that “Serious conversations on how social media platforms should be regulated to minimize their social costs are critically needed (Wareham 2)”, he doesn't explain how that can be done. Another example of how Wareham can cause the readers to become confused is when he starts his article with “Yes, they should be. The more difficult question is how to do this effectively while differentiating between their various forms.” In these statements, he is answering the question in the title of his article about whether social media platforms should be regulated. He responds by bringing up another question about how regulating social media platforms can be done, however, he fails to provide an answer and instead of explaining what he just mentioned, he goes straight to talking about the 2016 presidential election.

Given these points, it is clear that in the article “Why self-regulation of social media could work — the financial services model”, Henderson gives greater, preferable reasoning than Wareham to why social media should be regulated. Through Wareham’s unclear and complex writing, word choice, and argument, he prevents the reader from fully comprehending the information and fails to utterly convince the reader. On the contrary, Henderson provides a sufficient amount of examples and reasoning to his argument, includes relevant events and background information, and due to the fact that he has experience and passion for regaining public trust in society, he is able to appear as a superior reference to the argument of whether social media should be regulated.