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Should social media be regulated like the other aspects of daily life?

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Social media is huge part of the average persons life. In a test done people were asked on a scale of 1-10 how much they were on social media. 1 being not frequently and 10 being very frequent. The average was 8.03. That shows that people who spend time on the internet spend most of that time on social media. There have been many improvements in technology even with just in the last few years and technology just continues to grow in improve. Within the last five years social media has become the fourth most used place to receive information about emergencies and disasters. People go to social media to find answers to their questions if there is fake news on social media then people will not know what to believe. It could become very confusing and like the boy who cried wolf. So by having regulations on what can be posted then fake news could be weaved out and when in times of disaster and emergencies people would actually be know whats going on.

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Regulation of social media can be very beneficial towards saving democracy. Due to the anonymous online platforms, citizens are more confident with their opinions because they can hide behind a screen and speak their opinions.

Social media users opinions are also often swung to one side of an issue because they aren't given an opportunity to view both sides. Regulation of social media can't completely get rid of this, but it will help a lot.

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There are multiple downfalls which would be involved in having the government control social media regulation.

It would limit people's ability to have an open voice if what they say goes against the belief of the group regulating it (example: government)
This would be harmful in countries where speech is already oppressed, many people use social media to relay these issues to others.

Social Media is also useful for the citizens who'd rather have (some) anonymity to give their opinion on matters. In its current state it provides an environment for more open democracy, which would only be hampered if the government gained more control over it and possibly censor unwanted topics.

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Although speech regulation most likely will not be possible in the US because of freedom of speech, there may be some regulations on the privacy of users.

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Political polarization makes it difficult to agree upon regulations for social media in the US. It is a bipartisan goal to regulate social media, but how its done is the dividing issue. Polarization is the reason that the effects of issues take so long to become laws or policies.

Recent issues such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal have called for regulation to take place online. In this particular case, people's information was being used for targeted political advertisements.

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Ireland's stance on social media regulation

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Ireland's stance on social media regulation

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A broadcasting committee in Ireland ruled that social media sites can no longer self regulate themselves. Self regulation has proven to be ineffective and  has been the cause of unwanted and inappropriate media being spread throughout the site without repercussions. Ireland's government will now control the regulation of social media.