Social media is so heavily used nowadays. There is Tik Tok, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and many more. Especially with the pandemic and vaccines a lot of false information was spread. However, I do not think the government should be able to regulate the spread of misinformation.

According to a survey conducted by the Pew Center, 64% of Americans believe social media has a negative effect on the country cite misinformation as the reason. Other reasons are hate, people being gullible and believing everything. While this may be true and people do have the ability to post anything, that does not mean some posts do more good than bad. Furthermore from that survey, nearly 80% of Americans regularly get their news on the Covid vaccines from social media like Tik Tok and Snapchat.

Most people fail to realize that social media apps, like Instagram, filter through posts that have to deal with COVID-19. They put a filter on the post that will take you to a site that has the latest information on Corona and procedures to follow for your specific state. Instagram takes certain precautions to make sure information does not mislead the audience. Instagram also does something to filter through violent posts. If they think viewer discretion is advised they will put a sensitive’s consent over the post to blur it. Then if you as the viewer decide you would like to proceed, you can click on it and see the post.

Yes, the government having control over social media could be positive and help stop the spread of misinformation. On the other hand, a lot of things would then get filtered and justice would not be served. If the government gains control over social Aida who’s to say when it stops? A lot of police brutality against people of color gets posted over social media and it gets spreads rapidly. With all of the shares, likes, comments and more it creates awareness everywhere. For example when the video of the police officer on George Floyd showed everyone what black people go through with racist cops.

Even with everything happening overseas. If the government had control over what gets filtered who’s to say they would not be able to filter through things like that, that keep their image clean. That keeps everything that is happening outside of the United States outside. The government would do everything in its power to keep control of its people and make them seem like they are never at fault.

In addition, the government could also filter how many posts get posted for politics. Percentage of Democratic or Republican if they wanted a certain candidate to win. The government would take this kind of power through social media and run with it. Our phones are already always listening.

Although we do live in a free country, if the government had the power to limit the spread of misinformation they could and would limit so much more, without our knowledge. They could hinder the awareness and how much or little things get posted. The government hates when the community makes them look bad and would do anything to protect their image. If someone is concerned about the information they are getting on social media, they should research and fact-check it themselves.