Analysis of Government Regulations Impacting Social Media Platforms

This report examines the increasing risks that global social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, face due to proposed or actual government regulations. The report highlights the growing concerns around cyberbullying, child exploitation, and data privacy, leading governments worldwide to impose stricter policies and restrictions. It analyzes specific examples like India's age verification policies and the UK's Ofcom regulations, evaluating their impact on social media businesses. The report discusses how these regulations affect business growth, profitability, and the sharing of user content, ultimately concluding that while regulations are necessary for safety, they significantly impact the operational and financial aspects of social media giants. It emphasizes the need for a balance between maintaining user safety and allowing for business expansion.

Global Business Environment

INTRODUCTION
Today, social media has become one of the essential requirements of people across the
world. Government regulations being imposed on social media are some of rising risks which the
organisations such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are facing (Fuchs, 2017). The below
report is going to discuss the proposed or actual government regulations risking the business and
growth of social media. Also, it is going to evaluate the impacts of these regulations and policies
on them.
MAIN BODY
Increasing risks global social media faces proposed or actual government regulation and possible
impact on company
Social media platforms are one of biggest requirement of the people across the world
today in order to stay updated and keep close to their friends, family and colleagues. Since the
arrival of internet these platforms have helped people in sharing information, exchanging views,
opinions etc. However, in some ways these platforms have seen to be causing harm to the society
as well. Today, Facebook and Instagram have become such platforms where crimes such as
cyberbullying and child sex exploitation are chiefly being faced by a lot of user (Leonardi and
Vaast, 2017). Also, it is one of the major concerns being faced by the societies and its
government. In order to deal with this, government of the countries across the world have
imposed and have planned to impose strict regulation, restrictions on these platforms.
Countries such as India, have started understanding the complexity and depth of the
situation faced by its people on social media. In order to deal with this, the government's first
policy is to ensure age verification to assist companies in enforcing terms and conditions. Under
this, social media companies have to ensure people of certain age group (chosen by government)
will be making use of social media websites, only under strict rules and regulations (Government
plans new laws to protect social media users, 2018). This is chiefly going to impact the business
of these social media websites and in near future they have to suffer from terrible losses.
In UK, Ofcom (or Office have communications) has planned to push regulation of social
media. Under this, the content that is being shared on social media websites such as Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram is going to be regulated on a regular basis (Cade, 2018). This would allow
the government to see the pitfalls and the places where activities of crime and related issues is
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taking place on these websites (Ofcom to push for regulation of social network, 2018). This
measure will eliminate the chances of growing of such communities and groups of these websites
which tends to bully people or makes use of fraudulent practices.
This is going to impact the social media on large, because people using social media do
not like to share their content with any other websites of the government as well. The privacy
structure of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram allows people to keep their content to themselves
and can share only with those which they want (Lundgren and McMakin, 2018). The regulations
can deeply impact the social media giants and can make them suffer in their growth and
development. Along with it, they seen to be facing large issues of profitability and growth as
well.
CONCLUSION
Social media platforms are effective in terms of sharing information, discussion, opinions
etc. However, they pose a large threat to a lot of people too by risking sharing of their personal
information and related stuff. From the above findings, it has important for government to
impose strict regulations on social media platforms in order to maintain safety and security of
their people. But these strict policies and regulations are impacting the social media giants in
terms of growth, profitability and business expansion on large scale.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cade, N.L., 2018. Corporate social media: How two-way disclosure channels influence
investors. Accounting, Organizations and Society. 68.pp.63-79.
Fuchs, C., 2017. Social media: A critical introduction. Sage.
Leonardi, P. M. and Vaast, E., 2017. Social media and their affordances for organizing: A
review and agenda for research. Academy of Management Annals. 11(1). pp.150-188.
Lundgren, R. E. and McMakin, A. H., 2018. Risk communication: A handbook for
communicating environmental, safety, and health risks. John Wiley & Sons.
Online
Government plans new laws to protect social media users. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://diginomica.com/government-plans-new-laws-protect-social-media-users/>
Ofcom to push for regulation of social network. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/sep/17/ofcom-to-push-for-regulation-of-social-media-
platforms/>
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