What the future holds for Social Media?
Solutions to combat the worst elements of current mainstream platforms
Social media is great! It has incredible value in connecting people from all four corners of the earth. It is a tool capable of so many great things. At its core social media is a tool for maintaining and strengthening relationships, meeting new people, building communities and bringing the world closer together.
Beyond this, it has huge utility for staying up to date with the latest news, providing an instant source of entertainment, a medium for expressing your talents and creativity, sharing your knowledge to help others, discussing and debating topics and giving people a voice to express their views and initiate change.
In light of the restrictions enforced during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is hard to imagine what life would have been like without the outlet of Social Media to stay in touch with our closest friends and indeed the outside world.
However, with now more than 3.78 billion users of Social Media worldwide, it is a monumental task to try to keep the platforms ‘clean’ and respectable. Whereas social media has an incredible ability to bring about positive change, it also has the capacity to do harm.
Online Hate
One of the most pressing issues at present involves online hate speech — where users are attacked on their race, religion, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, or gender. There are public calls for social media platforms to do more to prevent this and protect their users. Big sporting organisations have taken a stand on this recently with BT Sport continuing to campaign their #hopeunited campaign with the support of many professional ambassadors.
Anonymous Accounts
There are also many users manipulating the social media space using anonymous accounts for trolling, bullying, scamming, catfishing, impersonating, spamming and intentionally sparking conflict and outrage. There have been many campaigns recently calling for social media companies to ban anonymous users in an attempt to combat this, including a recent petition led by Katie Price which received over 100,000 signatures within hours, challenging UK parliament to consider changes in Online Safety legislation.
These issues can only be properly solved by building a fresh platform from the ground up.
Misinformation
Word travels fast through social media platforms. Their algorithms and share buttons are set up in a way which allows content to go viral quite quickly. This can be quite dangerous if the information that spreads is in fact not true. Social Media has become a cesspool for poor quality and deceitful content designed to polarise communities and manipulate viewpoints for financial or political gain. Documentaries like The Great Hack demonstrated how opinions can be manipulated based on the content that gets projected through Social Media. It is clear there is a shortcoming in current platforms that doesn’t have appropriate measures in place to prevent the possibility of this.
Data
Almost all revenue for Social Media sites is generated from advertising. The more time they can keep their users scrolling for and the more engagements they get, the more they can monetise user data to marketers for advertising. There is a conflict of interests here. Algorithms are designed to push content which sparks the most engagement which incentivises controversial, conspiracy and often fake stories to proliferate. Users have no control over the order in which content appears on their feeds and are none-the-wiser of how their data is being analysed and sold to third parties. The Social Dilemma documentary sheds light on this, and there is growing distrust about how leading social media companies are using our data.
How can this be solved?
While current platforms continue to make improvements and take measures to combat these issues, it is an impossible task. There is already a certain culture and client base embedded in these platforms and the massive user base makes it very difficult to implement whole-scale changes. They are simply too long in existence with their current strategies and policies to make any big changes.
These issues can only be properly solved by building a fresh platform from the ground up. They need a stricter sign-up protocol to onboard, a clearer ethos and code of conduct, more transparent data collection and usage, more ethical algorithms and advertising and community-led reporting and moderation to keep the platform clean.
Waivlength
Waivlength is a social media site currently in development. It aims to combat the worst features of current mainstream platforms and has transparency at its core. The Waivlength development team will consult with experts to implement evidence-based approaches to create an authentic social platform. It aims to give more control to the user and protect their wellbeing and privacy better than current mainstream channels.
User Verification
All users on Waivlength will be fully verified through banking-standard Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols. This will maintain the integrity of the site by ensuring only real people can onboard. If banned from the site for breaching the code of conduct, users will not be able to simply sign-up again. This immediately stops bots and fake accounts and ensures there is an appropriate sanction for users who do not act responsibly.
Anonymity
While anonymity can be viewed through a negative lens, it also gives many people a sense of freedom and allows them to express themselves in an online space with more confidence. While Waivlength will have user’s real-names scraped from the KYC onboarding process, it will be optional for users to make this publicly visible on their profile. They may use a username with a pseudonym instead. If anonymous users try to use their anonymity to breach the code of conduct and are reported, they will be banned from the site and will not be able to make another account.
As extra assurance for those who still don’t trust anonymous users, users may set filters that only allow real-name users to comment on their content or private message them. If an anonymous user reaches out to someone with these settings, they can decide whether to share their real identity to begin a conversation.
These rules around anonymity, coupled with the KYC verification means every user must act responsibly within the code of conduct to use the platform. This is a huge barrier to deter online trolling, scammers and hate speech and ensures that repeat offenders do not exist on Waivlength.
User Control
Waivlength will allow its users to have more control over the content they see. It will employ features where users can inform the algorithm more regularly on what content they would like recommended. It will also give options to filter their news feeds more readily. There will be more transparency about how their data is used and users will be able to take more control over how advertising is presented/targeted. While there are many considerations to be made, Waivlength’s ethos of transparency will be to the fore and will endeavour to create a more ethical landscape for the user.
WAIV token
Another unique feature of Waivlength is the integration of its own cryptocurrency $WAIV. While not a necessary commodity to use the platform, $WAIV can be used in novel ways on site. It can be used to tip creators for their content, it can be used to pay subscription fees for an ad-free version of the site, users may be remunerated in $WAIV for successfully reporting content that breaches the code of conduct, they may be reciprocated in $WAIV should they allow their data be harnessed for targeted ads. It may eventually be used to purchase products/services through the site. A huge incentive to hold $WAIV is that it effectively operates like a share in the Waivlength company in that 50% of future profits of the platform will be redistributed to $WAIV holders relative to their percentage holding.
Forthcoming Updates
While Waivlength developers and advisors continue to work hard over the months ahead, it is clear that this platform has the potential to make a huge global impact as a competitor to current mainstream social media. There is a growing community of $WAIV token holders who are supporting the project with early investment and promotion of the project. Learn more at www.waivlength.io where you can find a more detailed whitepaper and roadmap for the development of the platform.
There is an incoming series of articles providing more detail on how Waivlength is seeking to revolutionise the social media space. Be sure to follow so you don’t miss out.
