Week 10: Digital Citizenship and Conflict: Social Media Governance
It is important to consider conflict in terms of social media governance as it rounds out the digital community experience; not all digital communities are inherently positive and welcoming online, and you'll very easily be able to spot areas of social media where communities are arguing and disagreeing on things. Digital citizenship needs to be understood with both positive and negative sides considered.
(Image: Edutopia)
In week 5, we defined digital citizenship as follows:
"Digital citizenship refers to the online participation of users in every facet of the community, be it social, economical, political or otherwise; it has the “potential to benefit society as a whole and facilitate the membership and participation of individuals within society” (Mossberger et al., 2008), and links with the idea of a “public sphere” in that participation is vital and must be accessible to all in order to succeed." (Week 5 Discussion Blog Post)
This "vital participation" means that everyone in a digital community is entitled to their own thoughts and opinions, and thus, conflict can ensue. Social media governance comes into play where authority figures are established and communities are "governed" to avoid these conflicts. An example of this would be a moderator of a Facebook group, who is able to remove or mute users at will when behavioural guidelines are not followed.
One large goal of these moderators are to reduce harassment online. Plan International (2020) surveyed 14,000 girls in 31 countries and found that 59% had been the victim of online abuse and insulting language. Studies by other bodies have uncovered that a vast majority of online users report experiencing the same harassment online.
From these statistics it is clear that online harassment is an enormous problem in our digital communities that needs to be addressed immediately. As digital citizens, it is important that we each do our part to uphold a safe and wholesome environment for other digital citizens.
The best ways for us to do so include putting pressure on platforms to denounce this behaviour and remove offending users, raise awareness of these issues and advocate for a more positive online experience.
Of course, the best course of action is and will always be simply to not participate in this behaviour ourselves. In this case, it is important to be the change we wish to see.
References
Mossberger, K, Tolbert, C & Mcneal, R, 2008, Digital Citizenship: The Internet, Society, and Participation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US
Ostini, J & Hopkins, S, 2015, "Online Harassment is a Form of Violence", The Conversation
Plan International, 2020, "Free to be Online? Girls Get Equal", Plan International
















