Governments’ conflict with social networks: the cases of X, Telegram and TikTok

Authorities in various countries are taking action against certain social networks, claiming that they are breaking laws. The companies that own these social networks accuse the authorities of exercising censorship and restricting freedom of expression. The debate is on.

Recently, the social network X (formerly Twitter) was suspended in Brazil by order of Judge Alexandre de Moraes of the Federal Supreme Court, after its owner Elon Musk was accused of violating local laws. On the other hand, in France, the founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, was arrested on charges of allowing illegal activities such as drug trafficking, prostitution or money laundering to take place there. In addition, the European Union is investigating the design of the social network TikTok for considering it addictive and capable of exposing minors to harmful effects.

Social network X stopped working in Brazil after Musk refused to block profiles accused of spreading fake news and removed the company’s only legal representative in the country, in what is a violation of local laws. For his part, President Lula da Silva supported the judge and, in conversation with a local media outlet, stated: “Just because he has money does not mean he can do whatever he wants. He must accept the country’s rules and respect the Supreme Court’s decision.” The tycoon, in turn, accused the Brazilian judge of being a censor and of not complying with the Constitution.

The case of Telegram

In late August, the founder of the instant messaging network Pavel Durov was arrested in France on charges of allowing illegal activities on the app. The incident comes as part of an investigation into the lack of moderators that allows criminal activities to take place.

Durov is being investigated for alleged crimes such as complicity in money laundering, distribution of sexual images of children, drug trafficking and organised crime. Although he was released on bail of 5 million euros, the condition is that he must report to the police station twice a week and not leave France.

TikTok also under the microscope

In February of this year, the European Union launched an investigation into TikTok for its lack of protection measures for minors, advertising transparency, access to data for researchers, risk management of addictive design and harmful content.

The European Union is particularly interested in compliance with the Digital Services Act, which relates to mitigating the negative effects that social network design may bring, respect for children’s rights, as well as evaluating the effectiveness of tools that should verify the true age of minors so that they do not access inappropriate content.

Artistic recreation of the concept of digital social network. (Illustration: Amazings / NCYT)

Regulations in digital scenarios

Social media plays a central role today, everything that happens in the digital world has its counterpart in the tangible world and vice versa. The advance of large platforms has made them very powerful, and as a result, concerns have arisen about the risks arising from an excessive accumulation of power in a few hands.

In fact, platform owners such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have long been moving their pieces on the chessboard of global politics.

For example, after losing the 2022 election, Donald Trump was suspended and blocked from the network then called Twitter, on charges of inciting violence at the US Capitol. However, now that Twitter is called X and is under Musk’s control, Trump (with whom Musk now aligns) once again has an active account on the network.

One case that caused a huge scandal was when the personal data of millions of Americans on Facebook (owned by Zuckerberg) was extracted, without their consent, to be used in the presidential campaigns for the 2016 elections in the North American country.

Much of the political discussion between citizens takes place on social media, but there is also a growing number of trolls and bots. In addition, presidents are increasingly using social media as a means of communication, as is the case with Javier Milei and Lula Da Silva.

Regarding this growing role of social media in politics and in influencing public opinion, in the case of X, Musk is aware of the power that his platform has and made this clear the day he became its owner by considering this network as the “digital public square”. (Source: Luciana Mazzini Puga / UNQ Scientific News Agency)