Social media in 2025 has changed SO MUCH, especially with the new White House staff currently in office (and I am not political at all but I think they might care a little bit too much about social media than whatever is actually going on in the world). Facebook and Instagram got rid of fact-checkers, which really makes you think about how we balance free speech and stopping the spread of misinformation online. These platforms are basically the new public squares where everyone gathers for any information, as the Supreme Court stated in the 2017 Packingham v. North Carolina case. People come on these apps to talk and share, but the problem is that private companies own and control these spaces to a point where we shouldn’t even try to share information.
Having big platforms like Facebook and Instagram is super convenient because everyone you know is on there, and it’s easy to connect and find whatever you may be looking for. But all this power in just a few hands is very risky and honestly feels like a strip of freedom to us social media users. When they remove fact-checkers or change what shows up on everyone’s feeds, it affects what millions of people see, talk about, and keep relevant. For example, if something major happened at the White House but it got removed from all our feeds, most people probably wouldn’t even know it happened. No one would be talking about it because it just wouldn’t show up when millions scroll through their feeds. The big problem is that these companies don’t answer to us, the users, but rather they answer to owners and shareholders who give them the big money.
So, should we just trust these companies to do the right thing? I am going to say probably not! Sometimes they care more about money or pushing certain ideas than making a fair space for the people using the apps. Monahan talks about this in Deregulating the Digital Town Square. The Free Speech Project’s “New Public Square?” shows how these platforms attempt to control speech but aren’t very transparent or democratic about what exactly is going on. Twitter’s constantly changing rules are a perfect example of how unstable this power is and how we truly don’t have a sense of freedom of speech.
Because of this, some people think we should look at decentralized platforms like Mastodon or Bluesky, where users seem to have a lot more control. Some also suggest the government make rules for “portability” so we can take our conversations and friends with us if we switch platforms, instead of being stuck on each specific media platform.
In the end, who really owns what we say and post online? Even though we create the content that is posted, the platforms, more times than not, get to decide what stays and what goes. That’s kind of a big deal if these spaces are supposed to be “public squares” where everyone can join in and post their thoughts freely. Deleting our free thoughts takes away every aspect of a “public square,” and I am not entirely sure that those running understand that.
From my own experience using social media like Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, I see how all the different algorithms can pull you into good or toxic spaces VERY FAST. I’ve started to block and remove people sooner, while also constantly using the “show less” button when it comes to people or topics that I do not really mesh with. I also try to double-check any info before sharing because misinformation spreads so easily, and I honestly have been falling for one too many AI videos on TikTok recently.
What we need as a society is more transparency and fairness from these companies that own all of the apps that we use daily. Maybe some rules to protect free speech, but also keep hate and lies from taking over. Supporting decentralized platforms and pushing for portability would help make things less controlled by just a few companies. Social media can connect people in awesome ways, but only if we treat it as a public space, not just a business.
The future of free speech online depends on us standing up for better digital spaces where we TRULY have the right to say whatever we want. I think we all need to push for that change and fight for what we deserve.
