GS4 · UPSC Mains
You are the CEO of a social media company that has a wide user base. The social network offered by your company has emerged as a platform for people to interact with each other and share news, opinions etc. However, at the same time, women are being repeatedly harassed and cyber bullied through this network. Whenever any instance of harassment is brought to notice of the company, your staff members immediately deactivate the account of the culprit. However, since new accounts can be created easily, such incidents continue to happen. Also, the system to verify one's account details has been deemed lax by public authorities and human rights groups. But in order to increase the user base, you have to ensure that it is easy for a new user to sign up. Increase in the user base leads to more advertisements on your network, which is a source of huge annual turnover for the company. At the same time, in wake of increasing instances of harassment, you also need to tighten the process of creating new accounts and deactivate or delete the ones being misused. (a) Highlight the options available to you in this scenario and evaluate each of them. What course of action will you take and why? (b) Is there a need for having reasonable restrictions on social media for it to remain a platform of healthy and fruitful engagement. Analyse from the viewpoint of different stakeholders.
GS4 · Case studies on the above issues
| Topper | Rank | Source | Copy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gaurav Kumar | — | VisionIAS | p.47 |
| Rahul Bhat | — | VisionIAS | p.47 |
| Akhil Pilani | — | VisionIAS | p.47 |
| Tapasya Parihar | — | VisionIAS | p.47 |
| Yashni Nagarjan | — | VisionIAS | p.47 |
| Sameer Saurabh | — | VisionIAS | p.47 |
| Saumya Sharma | — | Vision | p.47 |