***Is a media company easily identifiable? Are online media sites actually media companies?* Not according to some standards. Apparently a media company isn't such when it's only online, like Facebook or YouTube (according to them).**

<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/xfUjr3u.jpg" /><br/><em><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Socialmedia-pm.png">Source: wiki</a></em></center>

**A media company can regulate the information that goes out, to promote what users read and the advertising they see or hear.** But this is what Facebook and YouTube do as well, they edit content users can get and finance it through advertising, just like the media moguls of the past century have done. Yet, online social media sites claim to only be "platforms", not actual media companies and therefore don't conform to the same expectations.

*Are Facebook, YoutTube, and other sites merely "platforms" for social media, or is there more to it?*

*How can they claim to simply be a platform for social media, as if they are simply passively hosting content that users generate, and don't asses the info themselves in any way or modify what info or how users get to reach certain info?*

Users may generate the content, but they have the modern "editor", the algorithm, that filters and promotes content to get more attention from other users.

Judging from this, we can conclude that Facebook, YouTube and others like it, are not honestly portraying themselves as media companies. **They have a huge amount of power to influence and inform people.** Sensational, viral or hyped-up content makes its way to more people despite the quality or veracity of the content. Much of the potential for informative online content is cheapened this way.

These are complaints many have had about this quality of info on FB, and have left FB in search of better information sources. Facebook may not pay much attention, since it's success is driven by the paying advertisers which are the real customer, not the users.

The recent fiasco of ***"fake news"*** plays into this as well. Governments around the world are putting pressure on Google and Facebook, among others to ***"clean up their act"***. The British government views Google, Facebook and Twitter as being ineffective in policing their platforms for **abuse and hate speech**, and the German government has threatened huge fines if they don't improve their methods of operation as a media company. Dailymotion was [hit with a ban in Russia](https://steemit.com/copyright/@krnel/russian-court-orders-a-ban-on-dailymotion) earlier this year.

**There is mounting pressure for online social media services to increase their responsibility in setting rules over how their services are used.** These media companies may claim that it's too complex, but they don't seem to have an issue tracking down the various ways to hit someone with a copyright violation when it suits them.

The **biggest objection** to implement stricter measures on the services offered by "social media", are about **free speech**. But standard media organizations existed previously in support of free speech, and were not considered the enemies of free speech. Perhaps defining what type of media an online social media company is targeting, can help to apply standards, or even differentiate different types of content within the platform in order to facilitate more appropriate standards according to the respective types of content. 

There is a difference between information to edify people about what's happening in reality, and a simple picture of a cat posted by someone. The standards for quality information don't really apply to other types of media content.

The future of online social media is likely to be changing soon. *What will it look like?* I don't know, it could be better for them, or it could turn into the biggest mistake they make by censoring more content users generate. Personally, I see standards as good for certain content types as a means of measuring them in some way. Steemit would benefit from content types and subSteem  tokens to value different types of content categories differently.

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#### Thank you for your time and attention! I appreciate the knowledge reaching more people. Take care. Peace.

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References:
- [A Quick Click, A Quick Buck](https://www.newscientist.com/issue/3118/)
- ['Fake News' Round-Two as Facebook, Google and French Media Team Up for Presidential Election](https://steemit.com/fakenews/@krnel/fake-news-round-two-as-facebook-google-and-french-media-team-up-for-presidential-election)
- [Psychological 'Vaccine' to 'Inoculate' People from Accepting 'Fake News'](https://steemit.com/fakenews/@krnel/psychological-vaccine-to-inoculate-people-from-accepting-fake-news)
- [Post-Truth - Orwellian Newspeak Arrives in the Oxford Dictionary (Spouse of FakeNews)](https://steemit.com/fakemainstreamnews/@krnel/post-truth-orwellian-newspeak-arrives-in-the-oxford-dictionary-spouse-of-fakenews)
- [Tell-Lie-Vision - How Fake the "Real" News Is](https://steemit.com/fakemainstreamnews/@krnel/tell-lie-vision-how-fake-the-real-news-is)
- [FakeNews is the FakeNews: It's a Smokescreen to Discredit Truth](https://steemit.com/fakenews/@krnel/fakenews-is-the-fakenews-it-s-a-smokescreen-to-discredit-truth)

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2017-03-25, 7:01pm