Social media privacy issues may not be simply solvable by tech alone. It’s a busines model issue. Root cause is perception that “Internet should be free.” In reality it’s anything but free.Value is created & paid for through prospect of attention & monetisation through Ad revenue
With a “blockchain based social media network” you may solve issues of nano-payments for posting to make spam expensive, but this can also be done right now by Facebook - they can simply start charging monthly fee for usage. But this will impact use of their network.
Blockchain based social networks may have similar issue. Many people would not use their tokens i.e. buy to hold, but will expect/hope others to use there’s. The behaviour is based on perception that with network usage (paid by others) token value will go up so they can cash out.
Blockchain based social networks would also have other major issues which will make them unviable. Many people use social media for marketing their brand, through quality content, so anonymous accounts are unviable. Immutability for such function is a complete disaster.
Humans make mistakes and want option to delete their history. Or people may need a mechanism for taking enforcement action for slander and libel, which can force removal of content. Take the forced actions on Google in the form of “right to be forgotten”.
Also pseudoanonymous accounts may be useful for a short time, but if by mistake or due to third party action a user’s identity is revealed, the user cannot delete their account. So a blockchain based social network would be the worst thing to use for highly sensitive material.
While “account deletion” issues may be solved through simple cryptographic techniques, like the so called chameleon hash, this brings the question down to what’s the point of using a blockchain in the first instance, & associated economic challenges of scaling & “free riding”.
Blockchain based social media has huge business/operating model issues that just can not be overcome by technology. These holes are not technological but social. I feel that blockchain based social networks may go down the route of Peerflix from the early 2000s.
