BWL XI: Paper in Communications of the ACM
A new article has been accepted for publication in Communications of the ACM. The paper discusses threats emerging from alt-tech social media platforms.
Title: New threats to society from free-speech social media platforms
Authors: Dominik Bär (LMU Munich), Nicolas Pröllochs, Stefan Feuerriegel (LMU Munich)
Abstract: In recent years, several free-speech social media platforms (so-called "alt-techs") have emerged, such as Parler, Gab, and Telegram. These platforms market themselves as alternatives to mainstream social media and proclaim "free-speech" due to the absence of content moderation, which has been attracting a large base of partisan users, extremists, and supporters of conspiracy theories. In this comment, we discuss some of the threats that emerge from such social media platforms and call for more policy efforts directed at understanding and countering the risks for society.
A preprint of the paper is available here.