The role of social media in communication, information, news and views is known to most people including many in their early teens. Twitter and WhatsApp for instance, have become synonymous with real time updates because of their unique ability to cover and share news as it happens, without the frills of TV reporting. The same can be said about Facebook, Instagram and now increasingly, Linked In among many others. For a reporter to be so super-efficient a smartphone is good enough. Understandably, it impressed the whole world but growing instances of misuse and abuse of data and privacy policies by the social sites and many of their users have raised questions about their trustworthiness.

What led to the trust deficit?

Some users don’t like to see commercial messaging on their social media handles while some don’t like the volume of such messages and would settle for a lower volume. Next, we have a more serious issue – violation of data protection protocol because all social media brands recklessly share user data and stats with other companies without the users’ permission. This is unacceptable because it amounts to illegal trade in users’ personal data, which is a criminal offence and yet Facebook and some other social sites have been doing it all these years.

US presidential elections and Cambridge Analytica

The Cambridge Analytica fiasco in the aftermath of the US presidential elections involved the data theft of over 50 million people from their Facebook accounts by this company. When Facebook chief, Mark Zuckerberg informed that Facebook changed its policy of not allowing access to third party apps to access data of users’ friends. Unfortunately, Facebook’s friend, Cambridge Analytica betrayed this trust and accessed the data of 50 million Americans whose opinion was critical for the results of the US presidential polls.

Stricter rules to protect user data

Along with Facebook, other social media companies will now have to walk the extra mile to win back the trust of their users. While Zuckerberg has apologized for the breach of privacy policy by Facebook, he knows that the main damage control will require Facebook to initiate major changes. Such changes must involve complete transparency with regard to how user data is used by the social media platforms. Looking at the massive scale of operations of the social media platforms, users will understand that commercial messages will continue to follow them on social media. However, there have to be rules and clear lines that can’t be breached without severe penalties.

Filter out abusive content and profanities instantly

Many users restrict their presence on social media platforms just to avoid seeing abusive content and profanities directed at them or others. Unfortunately, moderation of each and every profanity isn’t possible unless advanced technology, like artificial intelligence and machine learning is integrated with the social media platform. Currently, many discussions on social media threads even on important issues are full of abusive and intimidating content. Social sites should not overlook such issues and must protect their users’ from abuse and intimidation.

Businesses interested in enhancing their social media presence and engaging their audience more meaningfully must choose their digital marketing partner carefully. Zone One Digital is the best social media agency in Delhi/NCR and is known for pursuing fully legitimate social media marketing strategies that are highly effective.