Journal articles
Year
2025
Authors
MUELLER-BLOCH Christoph, Ciriello Raffaele F., Marx Julian, Cheong Marc, Mathiassen Lars
Abstract
Social media platforms—global sociotechnical systems enabling interpersonal and community communication—have become deeply embedded in modern society, influencing public discourse and connecting billions worldwide. Despite their societal value, these platforms have sparked growing concern over issues such as privacy violations, disinformation, psychological harm, and societal polarization. Recent developments, including the scaling back of fact-checking efforts by Meta and controversial content moderation decisions on X (formerly Twitter), underscore the risks of entrusting essential public communication infrastructure to corporate entities driven by profit and governed by centralized leadership. This paper calls for a critical reassessment of current social media governance models to address their societal impacts and ensure accountability in the digital public sphere.
CIRIELLO, R.F., MARX, J., CHEONG, M., MUELLER-BLOCH, C. et MATHIASSEN, L. (2025). Decentralized Social Media. Business and Information Systems Engineering, In press.