Overview
Professor Trost gives a lecture about the Decentralization of Power and the Future of Freedom. Anytime you have centralized power, you have a certain thing that needs to be attacked if it’s wanting to be fixed. The more decentralized the system, the harder it is to attack and overtake a certain place, country, or group of people. This is because there are more things to have to take over in order to take the power of something unlike a centralized power system, which is easier to take over because there aren’t as many components essentially. Decentralized currency operates on a blockchain with a decentralized protocol, such as Hive. All of the code on each node is public and after the fork of the code, it is split.
Does Social Media Support Freedom?
Every social media platform for the most part is centralized. For example, Professor Trost talks about Twitter saying that they are the free speech wing of the free speech party in 2010. In 2015, the founder of Twitter said that Twitter stood for freedom of expression, but there is no freedom of speech, expression, etc. on a centralized platform.
Make America Great Again?
I enjoy the example of Donald Trump’s account on Twitter and how when he expressed his gratitude and feelings about his political followers to his approximately 90 million followers, his account was suspended. This was all because Jack Dorsey and the rest of his team that controls Twitter didn’t like Donald Trump’s freedom of expression, so they took his ability to express his thoughts and opinions away by suspending his account. I feel this is the ideal situation to show exactly what Professor Trost is advocating for and trying to inform the public about. A centralized unit of power ultimately will run their company/platform the way they want, which will only include what they want it to. If they don’t like something/someone, they can and will either remove them completely, suspend their account, or try to control what they say and do. Personally, I just feel that if you publicly express how your platform is all about expression and freedom of speech, then whatever is said or done at that point should be acceptable, so long as it isn’t dangerous to anyone or anything. I understand that people have different opinions and some people may not agree with others, but that is well-known before you announce how your social media platform is all about freedom of speech and expression.
Decentralized Network
A decentralized network is a network where no one can suspend or delete your account. Also, no single person or entity can delete any content you posted, remove any followers, or stop you from posting anything. If any of these things can happen, the network is not a decentralized platform.
Centralized Media
An issue with centralized mainstream media is that a certain group of people have the authority to delete, postpone, suspend, and not allow users to post what they want and what sometimes needs to be told to the public through the media. A certain issue happened because of centralized media ultimately affecting the 2020 election. Essentially, there was a post about a scandal or issue regarding Joe Biden that was posted and then withheld by the Twitter authorities until right before the election. Joe Biden ended up winning the election and information that seemingly needed to be released to the public was withheld by Twitter, which ultimately could’ve affected the outcome of the election if it were released. _I find this very disturbing, because that certain news that was withheld from the public by Twitter could have changed the 2020 presidential election, which is no little thing. A presidential election is a huge thing and contributes a lot more than we realize sometimes. This can happen with any issue of any size, but this example just shows how centralized media can affect large issues within even our entire country. Centralized media may seem like not a large issue depending on what posts/accounts it regulates, but this example truly shows how bad this kind of media can be. _
My Opinion
Overall, I really agree with all of the issues Professor Trost discusses in his lecture. I appreciate the evidence he uses to help his viewers understand his viewpoint and see directly where he gets his information and thoughts. I believe that backing up your viewpoint with evidence means a lot especially when speaking to an audience and trying to advocate for a new idea or change of opinion. I feel that this lecture should be shown to all people who use social media, as well as governmental figures, because this type of authority should not be allowed to promote freedom, but withheld those freedoms depending on their personal beliefs.
Image Source
Admin, Info. “Decentralized Social Media.” Ecosleek, 12 Jan. 2024, ecosleek.in/decentralized-social-media/. Accessed April 23, 2023