Certain social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have stepped up their censorship guidelines to place certain limitations on the content posted to their platforms, Weisman said.
By LENA DZIECHOWSKI
Parler, it’s an app you may not have heard of before.
But after the Capitol riots, companies like Google and Apple banned access of the app to users.
“Social media has been used a lot by really antisocial groups,” Bentley University Media Law Professor Steve Weisman said.
Certain Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have stepped up their censorship guidelines to place certain limitations on the content posted to their platforms, Weisman said.
But that opened the door for less legitimate sources to emerge.
“Parler and Gab and others have been appealing to groups by saying we don’t censor anything, and so, that does allow criminal and other similar types of groups to use it for communication,” Weisman explained.
Companies such as Google and Apple are blocking access to these apps from users utilizing their devices. Weisman said that this is not a violation of First Amendment rights.
“Protection of the First Amendment is only from limitations put on it by the government. So private companies have every right in the world to decide who can use it,” Weisman said.
Weisman went on to say that social media was used to communicate during the attacks on the nation’s Capitol and shared the following tips for ensuring that your personal accounts are not at risk.
“You also want to be protecting yourself from having your account be hacked and used by someone else, which can be done and as a way of them also protecting their anonymity,” Weisman said.
“So, what you do is you have a good username. You have a good password, one that isn’t the same as you’re using for other accounts if there’s a data breach and suddenly someone has your password, and the big thing is to use two-factor authentications.”
Dual factor authentication ensures that even if someone does gain access to your username and password, they still won’t be able to access your accounts.
Originally published at Western mass news