Debate Evening: Social media and cyberbullying

On November 23 we hosted a Debate Evening at Open Doors. The topic was social media accountability. We tried to find answers to questions such as “should social media ban controversial content or false information?”, “Should we protect freedom of speech, or should we suspend certain accounts that share extreme political views?”, “Where do we draw the line?”

We divided the discussion into three rounds of 20-minutes each. The first one worked as an icebreaker to slowly introduce the discussion topic. On the second one, participants could choose their side in the debate, and on the third round, participants had to defend a position previously given to them. After each round, everybody had the chance to put in common their views.

On many occasions, the conversation usually shifted towards trying to find solutions or a deep reason behind the behaviour of social media platforms. In the end, the answers were never a simple yes or no to the questions, and that was exactly our aim. We just wanted to spark a conversation about the extent to which social media companies can restrict or allow the information published on their platforms.