While social media empowered people in an unprecedented manner creating social media influencers, and a space for people to express opinion freely to attract the attention of those in power on various issues, it has also created an atmosphere of confusion between truth/reality and fiction/falsity. (REUTERS)

The Negative Impact of Social Media and Artificial Intelligence on Society

Adarsh V.KJune 13, 23 India, Jack Dorsey, Twitter

The excessive use of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram has resulted in more harm than good for societies. The spread of misinformation, rumors, and manipulation has increased due to their popularity.

While social media has given people unprecedented influencers and space for free expression of opinion to attract the attention of those in power on various issues, it has also created an atmosphere where truth/reality and fiction/falsehood are confused. In particular, political misinformation, fear mongering and hero worship have been some of the harmful effects of social media.

Damage in shutting down Twitter

Having said that, I’m not sure that shutting down a social media platform is the solution, because if you shut it down or try to make social media more difficult, others will fill the void, which may be more. harmful. For example, we’ve seen Koo try to replace Twitter or TruthSocial try to replace Twitter in the US, but they had a much more biased and extreme following.

The danger posed by artificial intelligence tools and the crucial need for regulation

With the unprecedented availability of AI-based tools to create deep fake images, video and audio, the problem is getting worse. There should be some kind of regulation and some kind of body independent of the government of the day, made up of representatives of various political parties, judges, former law enforcement officers, and social scientists, that should regulate social media to avoid undue government influence in deciding what should be removed from it.

There should also be AI-based tools to detect fake information, and accordingly, social media posts should be filtered through such tools. A better legal system and an independent regulatory body can help, but only if the regulatory body is truly independent.

Sandeep Shukla is a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-Kanpur).

Note: The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of ReturnByte.