The Need for Publicly Owned Social Media Platforms for National Communication
Rahul Aggarwal
Early Researcher at Chalmers University | ZeroPM Project | Environmental Engineer | KTH | Sustainability | LCA | ESG | Climate Change
The world has changed, and perhaps it’s time to rethink how we communicate. Traditionally, communication has been divided into two main types: societal communication between people and personal communication among friends and family. However, there is also governmental communication, where governments convey messages to their citizens through newspapers, news channels, or other platforms. Personal communication involves sharing personal feelings and life experiences with those close to us. Societal communication is a platform for discussing social issues with people within our nation or community.
Historically, societal communication was challenging because there were limited platforms for people to express their views publicly. Only influential individuals could share their opinions through articles in newspapers or other media outlets. Most social communication occurred face-to-face, relying on word of mouth or personal interactions to spread messages and gauge public sentiment.
Today, with increasing democratic values and the proliferation of digital platforms, people want to communicate with a broader audience. They no longer want to speak only to those around them but wish to spread their views and messages using freely available digital tools. There are now several forms of communication that shape our society:
These methods represent one-way communication, where individuals share their views with the public and receive some reactions, often leading to further content in response. More interactive platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, allow for photo sharing and more direct interaction with the audience.
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In my view, societal communication needs to evolve, and there should be a government initiative to create national-level platforms for citizens to interact with each other. Existing platforms are global, making it difficult to focus on issues important at a national level. It's the government's responsibility to provide publicly controlled platforms for image sharing, short video sharing, long video sharing, podcasts, blogs, and short texts. These platforms should operate under national laws and be freely available to citizens, ensuring accountability and preventing private ownership.
No matter whether this change happens today or tomorrow, it will eventually happen. Every country needs to provide its citizens with more frequent and free ways to interact with each other at a national level. People want to share and discuss their viewpoints, and for this, we need platforms under national jurisdiction, free from private ownership.
Governmental and personal interactions have evolved, so societal communication must evolve as well. All countries should develop their own social media platforms to facilitate social communication among their citizens. We cannot rely on privately owned companies to provide these platforms at a national level because different countries have different sensitivities, and global platforms dilute the messaging power.
Each country needs publicly owned and legally regulated social media platforms for social communication, including short text, long text, voice, short videos, long videos, and images. These platforms would allow citizens to communicate with each other directly, fostering a sense of community and shared purpose.
We are waiting and watching for the time when this will be implemented because it will happen one day. We all need social interaction platforms that are publicly owned, created for the citizens, by the citizens, and funded by taxpayers for their benefit, rather than for other interests. This is coming sooner than we think: platforms for social interactions owned by the public. We all wait for the chance to engage on these platforms for social interactions among the citizens of a country