Social Media Harms as a Trilemma: Asymmetry, Algorithms, and Audacious Design Choices

Abstract

Social media has expanded in its use, and reach, since the inception of early social networks in the early 2000s. Increasingly, users turn to social media for keeping up to date with current affairs and information. However, social media is increasingly used to promote disinformation and cause harm. In this contribution, I argue that as information (eco)systems, social media sites are vulnerable from three aspects, each corresponding to the classical 3-tier architecture in information systems: asymmetric networks (data tier); algorithms powering the supposed personalisation for the user experience (application tier); and adverse or audacious design of the user experience and overall information ecosystem (presentation tier) - which can be summarised as the 3 A’s. Thus, the open question remains: how can we ‘fix’ social media? I will unpack suggestions from various allied disciplines- from philosophy to data ethics to social psychology - in untangling the 3A’s above.