Is Social Media Regulation necessary for National Security?

In Blog
December 21, 2020
Shahbee Zehra
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Social Media services are web-based operations that allow individuals to construct a unique network of other users based on mutual interests, goals, causes or some other commonality. Such an online connection allows an efficient exchange of information and views irrespective of the distance. Individuals, companies and governments all take advantage of the current digital capacity

Social Media services are web-based operations that allow individuals to construct a unique network of other users based on mutual interests, goals, causes or some other commonality. Such an online connection allows an efficient exchange of information and views irrespective of the distance. Individuals, companies and governments all take advantage of the current digital capacity for interacting with others. Social media networks have become a powerful, reliable space to conduct all activities that were traditionally done otherwise. In a study conducted by NATO is 2009, it was suggested that future conflicts will be occurring in more connected environments which utilize the new means of communication and of acquiring information.

The operations on each social media platform differs, but they unite at the idea of attracting a community of users, who are provided with tools to post personal data and create user-generated content. These social platforms have digitalized our informal daily life as our social behavior and attitude is stored as social data, which unlike previous times, isn’t a short-lived impression. The formalization of this user generated data indicates that the role of social media platform doesn’t simply manage activities but also categorize social data. Encoding of social media is a skillful and deliberate collection of data. As a result, the activities of users aren’t always an outcome of their conscious decisions, but rather the way their data is managed. Thus, data can often be manipulated to damage a person, company or nation.

Social media has been used increasingly for political agendas too as these networks allow not the circulation of general information but political opinions of users too. Many studies such as of William and Gulati (2007/2009) suggest the number of Facebook supporters of a particular political party can reflect the electoral success, which is the reason Congressional candidates engage into the use of Facebook during election campaigns. In addition to this, countries in conflict such as in the case of Israeli-Lebanese war in 2006, utilize social media influence to foster their own image and decry the others. Publication of such content can severely compromise a country’s national security because people are heading towards an environment where their identity is summed up of what they believe, like or dislike rather than where they are from. This can be reflected through the events of 1993 war between US and Somalia. A video of a man being brutally being beat up in Somalia went viral, which hurt the sentiments of a lot of people globally. The international pressure required US to step back.

Since social media can effectively be programmed for influence, deception or propaganda, some argue that there is a dire need for social media regulations to be launched for the preservation of national security. Social media limitations should ensure there are no religious, cultural and ethnic values being damaged along with monitoring for sensitivities to National Security. After all, revolutionary movements can have a detrimental effect on a country’s national security. So many resources of the state are exhausted settling internal affairs that it weakens its ability to counter an external third.

Social media platforms allow general public to be vocal about their views, but they might not be fit to make ‘informed decisions’ like political actors who have their resources at stake in the system as suggested by Schumpeter (1945). Thus, the influence exerted by social media users should be limited by introducing controlled media. Especially since not all people will be able to comprehend information even if it is declassified, which would cause ambiguities and chaos in the state. And as established before, internal stability must be maintained at all costs to preserve national security.

Borderless global community majorly facilitated by social media services is heading towards a future where there will be no sovereign states. Statehood will be diminished as international influences increase and continue to impact the decisions taken by or made in state-nations. Though this raises transparency and accountability, it also undermines the authority of the state, which begins to challenge the national security of the state. Thus, it is imperative for each nation to construct domestic laws that filter out content that could threaten their national security.