The Future of Social Media: Covering, Researching, and Regulating Platforms

Social media platforms generate mountains of data — about what we like, what news we read, and who we talk to. This information, for the most part, is only available to the companies themselves, meaning journalists, researchers, policymakers, and the public lack a clear understanding of how social media impacts our society. The Facebook Papers changed that. The internal research not only revealed the potential harms caused by its platforms, but that Facebook knew about those harms and did little to stop them. Now, with an explosion of attention around this issue, we must ask — what’s next? 

This half-day virtual symposium brought together a range of journalists, researchers, and legal experts to explore that question and examine how to cover, research, and regulate social media platforms in the wake of the Facebook Papers. 

This event was co-sponsored by: NYU’s Center for Social Media & Politics, Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy at NYU School of Law, CUNY Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, NYU Arts & Science, and NYU Brademas Center.