Lisa Schirch Social Media Impacts on Social & Political Goods 3 wide range of contributions to social and political goods, including the following, described in more depth in the Full Report. Build empathy, tolerance and compassion for others and combat social isolation Design “civic tech” to address social problems Expand democratic governance and improve the state-society relationship Enable social movements to coordinate and communicate with others around the world Support crisis response, humanitarian assistance and development Prevent and confront hate speech and threats of violence Enhance public support for policy negotiation, diplomacy, and peace processes Use new social marketing methods of crowdsourcing ideas, fundraising, broadening support, engaging the public and evaluating the impact of nonprofit groups Summary of Social Media Challenges Between 2016-2018, descriptions of social media dramatically shifted toward itemizing its faults: fake news, addiction, interference in democratic elections and deliberation, group polarization, and promotion of violent conflict. Researchers and journalists identify a wide range of social media harms to social and political goods, described in more depth in the Full Report. Undermines personal well-being through chronic distraction, hijacking attention for corporate profit, which fosters addictive consumption and techno-stress Spreads misinformation and disinformation Undermines accurate information by decreasing the number of newspapers and the journalists as advertisers move to social media Creates information filter bubbles and echo chambers via social media algorithms that filter information enabling forums for tribalism where small groups of people, including those with anti-social norms, connect without public scrutiny Fuels social polarization and nationalism within groups Provides new platforms for hate speech and incivility, where people can post their anti-social, hateful message aimed at interrupting civil discourse Distracts people’s attention away from critical issues by flooding with personal interest or positive stories Spreads deceptive propaganda, “influence campaigns” and psychological operations that “destabilize” public trust in public institutions Sways elections with ads aimed at targeting and repressing voters Empowers states to monitor and harass journalists and pro-democracy movements Tolerates gendered online harassment of women Allows ads that exclude specific groups, such as minorities, people of color, Jews, women, and people over 50 Treats small countries as social media laboratories Allows recruiting and organizing for violent extremist groups Enables groups to foment violence and mobilize genocide