We take a differing view to the Islamic Emirate on the subject of Social Media, and we are certainly less polite about it.
Our view on social media is that digital communications should be legally under the guard of the territory that it operates in, and the laws of that territory. Certainly it is the case that U.S. social media
is badly designed, badly implemented and lacks ordinary safeguards that should be in place to protect the end user, in addition, U.S. social media does not allow sufficient control over the sharing of content,
nor does it allow sufficient safeguarding against association. We note, some U.S. social media allow anybody to associate with others irrespective of content, and frequently for political reasons. It is certainly the case
in the U.S. that the "far right wing" has come into a dominant position entirely by dishonest means and by associating with others. Looking at what is happening in the U.S. at the moment, they are struggling now
with an inability to control their social media, and a lot of the content isn't actually from a human source, but generated automatically by private sector companies and/or others with malevolent agenda's. The problem has become so severe that there are some really quite serious structural problems now taking place in the U.S., with political arguments that are collectively destructive.
Broadly speaking, we believe that social media is a good thing, but in the hands of those whom are perpetually fighting against each other, social media can only be bad and corrosive. In America, they have made the mistake
of believing that everybody agrees with their political outlook and cultural standards, which is naive. Just because two political parties are in a corrosive relationship does not mean the public have any interest
in those arguments, people will simply switch off and default back to what they know and trust. There is, already, evidence that the public are becoming disenfranchised in the U.S., and if that is the case in the U.S. then it is certainly the case in the rest of the world.
Fundamentally, social media should be the duty and responsibility of the government that the social media operates in, and should not be lazily and irresponsibly left to the U.S. to try to guess at what is acceptable to
a foreign audience. The U.S. is famous for having absolutely no idea what it is doing, which is one way of looking at it, another way to look at it is that the U.S. is trying to do far too much.
Take our fine example here, we do not rely on U.S. social media to put out whatever content happens to be put in front of us, simply because it is fashionable and of the moment, we take a holistic, worldly,
and deeply considered approach to what we are doing, and our content tells a far more interesting story which others may follow, admire and be interested in.
https://thekabultimes.com/impact-of-social-media-opportunities-and-challenges/
