Social media is a battlefield

Some people wait out the war hiding in bunkers huddled with family and friends, others slug it out in the free market.

Like most technologies that permeate society today, social media, as it turns out, originally came of age as a weapon. Though it was originally pitched as a peachy digital hangout for catching up with friends and as a platform for “activism” aimed at fostering “social good”, what it is really being used for today is as a battlefield for waging the digital warfare that has come to characterise society in the 21st Century. From petty bullying and slutshaming to election rigging and disinformation campaigns, social media has become a new non-lethal tool of conquest.