Social Media Debate Position 1: Against the Use of Social Media as a Credible Source of Information

Abstract

There are ongoing conversations among information professionals on whether social media can be considered a credible source of information. The very features of social media platforms that make them attractive to users, such as their ability to create and share content, also make these platforms very open to false and misleading content, which calls all content on these platforms into question. The platforms themselves have not yet perfected moderation processes to filter out all misleading and harmful misinformation. This paper contends that for these and other reasons, the social media landscape in its current state cannot be considered a credible source of information. These issues negatively affect user expectations; however, the platforms continue to attract users and thereby present opportunities for misinformation to cause harm. All of these concerns affect the efforts of information professionals to instruct users on identifying false content, as well as the online behavior of these information organizations themselves. This paper discusses the issues of mis- and dis-information and lack of effective content moderation, and examines how information professionals and other users are affected by these issues.

Keywords:

• Content moderation
• disinformation
• information education
• misinformation
• social media

Acknowledgement

This is one of the four position papers on social media discussion organized by Dr. Ingrid Hsieh-Yee, Professor of Library and Information Science, Catholic University of America, in her graduate class of LSC 522: Digital Content Creation and Management, Spring 2021.