1- Social Media – A Faustian Bargain?

Social Media is instantaneous and reaches huge global audiences. Its benefits and damages are vastly amplified from media used a generation ago. Where does freedom of the individual end and where do the needs of society begin? Should media be controlled to avoid private or political abuse? What are the challenges of either system?
Social media brought us the Arab Spring and cyber bullying, online learning and QAnon. Who can control this Faustian bargain? Could we start over like Tim Berners Lee was hoping?

2- Social Media Beacons of freedom or monopolies in need of regulation? 

Questions raised in the last years: Should the government regulate social media? Are they a tool or a publisher?  Should social media platforms be required to release private data to the government?
In the Politics YT Playlist you find a wide spectrum of good politics, of propaganda, from FOX TV undermining science in the Climate change debate to the extremes of Hitlers demagoguery. Since the Trump presidency, the term of Fake News and Alternative Facts has made research of the sources we use and quote ever more important.

3- Intentional Misinformation For Personal/Corporate Gain?
Already in 2012, estimated spending on television ads promoting coal and more oil and gas drilling or criticizing clean energy exceeded $153 million, according to an analysis by The New York Times of 138 ads on energy issues broadcast this year by the presidential campaigns, political parties, energy companies, trade associations and third-party spenders.
That tally is nearly four times the $41 million spent by clean-energy advocates, the Obama campaign and Democratic groups to defend the presidents energy record or raise concerns about global warming and air pollution.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/14/us/politics/fossil-fuel-industry-opens-wallet-to-defeat-obama.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120914