Consultant's Analysis: Social Media Tribalism and Free Speech

This essay analyzes the issue of social media tribalism from the perspective of a consultant for 'The Online Public Square.' It examines how social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, foster group-based identities and influence users' social and political stances, leading to the spread of hatred and division. The paper explores the conflict between free speech and the need for regulation, considering government intervention and the ethical aspects of managing online behavior. It delves into the psychological aspects of group identification and the challenges of addressing tribalism, proposing strategies such as engaging diverse stakeholders and addressing identity-based elements. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of maintaining social media as a platform for information and knowledge sharing, free from group-based identities and hatred.

Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA TRIBALISM
SOCIAL MEDIA TRIBALISM
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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The aim of the paper is to analyze the issue of tribalism in social media. This paper will
be analyzing the issue from the perspective of the consultant of the social media forum, “The
Public square”. It has been observed in the recent years that the issue of social media has become
more engaging for people.
A huge tribalism or rather a number of group based identities have arose due to the rise
in social media and it must be kept in mind that social media is mainly a platform for sharing
both information as well as knowledge among a number of people. It is found out that people
change their social and political stands easily due to the overarching influence of the social
media in their lives. In social media like the Facebook and Twitter, like-minded people gather to
support and reaffirm their beliefs and engage in some kind of argument that is not accepted by
others in the same way (Brady et al., 2017). Hence it has been argued that the use of social media
has taken people from the path of awareness to evangelism. This is the spread of hatred and
support for one particular cause in social media. The purpose of the any social media is the
sharing of the ideas, discovery which might shape the opinion of people to great extent. As a
consultant of the social media platform, this paper will be analyzing the issue of strategies to be
adopted to regulate this behavior and it will also be looking into the dilemma of the government
intervention for controlling free speech of the social media platform.
As per argument passed by Alexander, it can be said that support of one opinion might go
into the hatred for others, Social media has emerged as the new platform that supports such
behavior where one group of people do not hesitate to insult or rather spread hatred since it is
accepted to be a correct gesture in the social media (Slate Star Codex, 2019). The idea of free
speech as explained by John Stuart Mill argues that free speech allows people to arrive at clear
conclusion, and it is necessary to arrive at the truth of the world (Reeves, 2015). This brings us

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another debate on the right and freedom of free speech. What Mill wanted to argue is based on
the belief that freedom of speech will guide people to arrive and reach at the core truth which is
necessary for all the people (Reeves, 2015). However, what is interesting here to note is that this
debate is not about the freedom of free speech, instead, it is about all the different ethical aspects
of the intervention the government or the management. Hence, the idea here is to look into all the
possible strategies to be adopted in the case of restricting freedom of speech at social media
platforms like the Open Public Square. The main expectation from the use of social media is to
develop an online platform for sharing knowledge and positive outcome. According to
Alexander, people tend to identify themselves with one of the groups on the basis of certain
identity. One of the recent trends which has been explained by Alexander is the problem of out
grouping people. People who are mostly upon the social media find it psychologically
meaningful to attach themselves with one or the other identities. This idea of groupism is
harmful for the people who cannot be attached with any of the identities because this mostly
creates a sense of false compassion for the people on the social platform. This has been possible
as the sense of feeling is not attached with it. It is mentioned that people in these outgroups can
exactly look like one who is not, however, the differences in between all the different groups lie
in the way issues are discussed. Hence, it can be argued from the above discussion that social
media has emerged as one of the recent communicative channels which encourage the formation
of groups. It has not at all been developed for integrating all such kinds of groupism or tribalism
and generate hatred among huge number of people (Silva et al., 2015).
The organization will also be expected to monitor any growth of virtual abuse regarding
any individual issue. It is also to be ensured that digital topology is regulated through the proper
mechanism. This remains as platform for sharing information. Hence, it is important to maintain

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the platform free from all sorts of hatred. However, it is crucial to develop a sense of tolerance
for such issues, Freedom of speech is relative right. As it is true that the Freedom of speech is a
basic right which has been provided to all the people, it is also to be taken care of about the fact
that people do not take the advantage of this right. It is also important to consider the fact that
there are certain barriers to overcoming tribalism. It is to be noted that decision making is not
based on logic but rather upon loyalty to the group in most cases. Moreover, in case of any clash
between the identities, the question arises as to whether they are part of insider or outsider. This
single differentiating factor is problematic in the context of the social media tribalism. Hence, it
is to be considered that intervention of the government is not always welcome in cases like this,
since implementation of laws might be impacting the freedom of free speech of people and it is
considered to be against the individual right. Therefore, it can be concluded that all the different
ways for addressing the issue of growing tribalism include:
 Getting interested in the identity: This will help to understand the point of
view of the fundamental values of people belonging to one of these groups.
 Engagement of diverse stakeholders in order to disrupt the tribalistic
mindset of people. This will also help to understand the broader perspective of the
issue.
 It is significant to consider the fact that addressing the identity based
elements is crucial to manage the conflict.
 Hence, as the consultant of the social media platform which is facing criticism of
promoting tribalism, it can be recommended that formulation of a
committee has been authorized to make several changes or modifications
related to the spreading of hate message or attack on someone’s identities. It will

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also be ensured that necessary steps are to be undertaken in order to punish the
violators of laws repeatedly.
It is to be known that making decision must not be based upon logic but upon the loyalty.
A threat to a particular single person within a tribal group is actually a threat to the entire group,
exacerbating a number of differences based upon the identity as well as conflict escalation.
Other’s identity must be viewed both simplistically as well as narrowly and there is no use for
collaborating. There must be a mindset which must be adversarial by which each side will be
convinced of its own particular rightness and also insulates from learning regarding perspective
from others.
Hence it can be concluded that the use of the social media platforms for creating
identity based relationship is not a sign of a healthy development, it is important to consider the
fact that the social media is the medium of transformation of knowledge and information and it is
expected to remain free form any form of group based identities.

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References
Slate Star Codex. (2019). Slate Star Codex. [online] Available at: https://slatestarcodex.com/
[Accessed 7 Apr. 2019].
Silva, L., Mondal, M., Correa, D., Benevenuto, F., & Weber, I. (2016, March). Analyzing the
targets of hate in online social media. In Tenth International AAAI Conference on Web and
Social Media.
Brady, W. J., Wills, J. A., Jost, J. T., Tucker, J. A., & Van Bavel, J. J. (2017). Emotion shapes
the diffusion of moralized content in social networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, 114(28), 7313-7318.
Reeves, R. (2015). John Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand. Atlantic Books Ltd.