Centralized VS Decentralized Platforms
“social media engagement ring” by pro1pr is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Have you noticed that X (formerly known as Twitter) is losing users? NBC News and The Guardian discussed how X users have declined by 23% since November 2022, and according to Fox Business, many journalists have left X due to Elon Musk’s changes that make it difficult to share content. These events have occurred because X is a centralized site like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc.
A centralized social media platform is easy to use. Users can easily connect with others because of the vast amount of people using the platform, and it offers features such as sharing photos, videos, posts, and comments. These social media platform characteristics benefit and appeal to users like myself, and why these platforms still exist.
Despite these benefits, there are drawbacks to highly centralized sites and why users decide to leave:
A single company can own user data
A single company controls the platform
Less privacy and security
Censorship
Because of these drawbacks, digital consumers and creators shouldn’t depend on the “goodwill” of social media platform owners, like Elon Musk saying he believes in freedom of speech; instead, they should create their own platforms or join platforms that give control back to the users. Sometimes, companies censor, remove user content, and delete accounts. Meta is one recent example.
On Thursday, April 4 of this month, a non-profit newspaper, Kansas Reflector, posted an article link that critiqued Facebook, and the links to their site became blocked and posts removed. Users received a warning that the links were a security risk. Hours later, the links were active, except the one that critiqued Facebook. However, a day later, users who tried to share the newspaper’s website links on Instagram, Threads, and Facebook received a community guideline warning. CNN noted that Meta apologized for the platform error and said they weren’t retaliating against the newspaper’s criticism.
Independent journalist Marisa Kabas noticed this issue and wanted to test Meta. With permission from Kansas Reflector, she published the same article critique on her website and then shared a post on Threads. CNN said that Meta banned her from their platforms and blocked the links to her website. Again, Meta apologized, restored the links, and said there was an issue with their system, not the article.
There is a solution to this problem that occurred to Kansas Reflector and can potentially be an issue for other users: Moving to their own platforms or participating in decentralized sites. Decentralized sites give users control of their content. It’s also more private and secure when platforms don’t own their data or personal information. Mastodon and Bluesky are some decentralized sites. The sites are not owned or controlled by one company. They are more private and less likely to censor their users.
Another benefit and personal suggestion is creating a law that requires social media platforms to allow users to move their communities to other platforms smoothly, such as moving posts, videos, and photo content by just transferring files. Deleting user data from the previous platform would also be an additional requirement for this type of transfer, providing privacy and security to users.
If I could, I’d leave centralized platforms altogether. I use Instagram because it’s easier, and most consumers and creators use centralized sites. However, I have experienced the issues that these platforms develop. They keep my data, and even if I make a new account on Instagram (which I did because I was tired of the polarization and I wanted to test the platform), the same advertisements and suggested posts transfer to the new account, even if I am not following the same people or using the same email. In addition, Instagram almost deleted my new account because they said I violated community guidelines, but I didn’t break them. I had no posts or an inappropriate username.
Because of my experience, I advise others in purchasing or creating their own website. Creators should have control of their content and have the advantage of maintaining and owning their data. I don’t need to worry about censorship, privacy, or security like I do when I use social media.