Accountability is the First Step To Making The Internet Better.

this is just something that's been on my mind, but part of the reason the internet (and especially social media) kinda sucks nowadays is because most platforms cannot take accountability for their problems- both the people who use them, AND the people in charge. 

i do think the moderators here do a good job of fixing issues on here- they did a good job of being less lenient with gore, and they've done a somewhat decent job at adhering to the UK's ban of the platform. however- there has been an ongoing problem with them allowing people to say the most horrendous things in their posts... but iyou cant even swear in a comment, even if it's not directed at someone? oddly enough- i cant swear, but i've literally been called a slur on here (yes, i reported it) and they let that comment go through?? and though i love the community here, this also applies to a lot of yall!! im not gonna name names, but there was a blog post from someone who was talking about the platform becoming more negative, and when i saw that i commented and recommended posting and engaging with the more positive content on the platform- they saw it and agreed that the best way to combat negativity is to stop giving it a platform... but of course, NOTHING came of it. meanwhile, i started a twenty-two day long series where i talk about some of the positive things that happen throughout my day- and i didnt get one comment (or kudos, to my knowledge) from them!! they dont care that the platform is becoming "more negative," they just want to complain!!

tiktok is also heavily guilty of this- they'll make fun of problems on every other platform, but the minute you criticize the issues on their platform, suddenly it's "well.... theres issues on EVERY platform! it's not just tiktok!!! wait until you go on [other platform]..." like nobody is saying that tiktok is the only ever platform with issues- like i've said before, issues on a larger platform are always going to be more impactful offline. you can complain about how "annoying" some people on youtube shorts are, but you guys destroyed people's confidence in REAL TIME with that camera flip trend. there are REAL PEOPLE who werent allowed to use the bathroom during school hours- WHICH IS A BASIC MEDICAL NECESSITY- because of the devious lick trend. and that's just the tip of the iceberg with tiktok's lack of accountability- they refuse to even conceptualize the idea that someone might be experiencing problems others arent- it's mildly annoying at worst if you're just talking about something that upsets you and someone goes "this is such a non-issue," but tell me why some of these people are literally saying it in response to people talking about bigotry? what do you mean SLURS AND HATE CRIMES are a "non-issue?" just because something isnt affecting you doesnt mean it isnt a real problem, learn some empathy maybe?? and the bullying problems on tiktok have gotten so bad as well, because nobody's bothering to hold the actual bullies accountable. you report their comments and posts? nothing. you respond to them? you get banned. you talk about your experience? well, actually, it's your fault for not blocking that person- even though you probably did, which leads me to another problem ive addressed with tiktok- the blatant issues with stalking. i saw a video talking about how you shouldnt stalk people if they block you, and tell me why most of the comments were trying so goddamn hard to justify actually stalking people online. news flash, guys- even if you dont consider checking the page or reposts of someone who's blocked you as "stalking," you're still knowingly going against the set boundaries they have, which is bad. the point of blocking people is to prevent them from interacting with and viewing your page, and by viewing their page, you are directly violating the boundary they set with you. there's honestly so much more i could bring up with issues on tiktok, but im only gonna talk about one more that's a glaring issue: tiktok users will find any way to claim that a form of bigotry is a bigger issue on any other platforms... but dont bring up the blatant issues with ableism on there, because they'd actually rather die than admit it's a problem. comments like "do teachers talk slowly to you," "do you get extra time on tests," "does the number 504/do the letters IEP mean something special to you," etc. are all forms of casual abelism on the app- all of these things mentioned are common accomodations for autistic children in school systems, and these phrases are commonly used to refer to someone as stupid while being "funny" about it. do you guys think insinuating that anyone who might not be the smartest is inherently autistic is funny at all?? i sure dont. or whenever a small business makes tools designed to help physically disabled people, a lot of people complain that that tool "wasnt needed" because "that's an easy task." have you ever thought that that task might not be easy for everyone? have you ever thought that accomodation tools are meant to HELP PEOPLE WHO NEED THEM, and if you dont find them helpful, then they obviously arent for you? not to mention the people who make posts that attack "cringe" people and assume they're self diagnosed with autism or adhd- you do realize that's just the ableism equivalent of saying something inherently sexist but specifying "white women" to make it sound really progressive on paper, right?  a lot of the people need to realize that they're either one wrong step or a few decades away from becoming physically disabled themselves, and the things they do and say wont seem so "unserious" when they're the ones recieving it. like i said earlier, i could go on and on about tiktok's problems (both as a community and with the moderators) but if i did, this post could be considered a literary essay, so i'll just leave it here for now.

i could talk about instagram, but it's basically a less stalker-filled version of tiktok with more blatant misinformation, so the last platform i want to address is YouTube. hnestly, youtube is pretty great as a community- since you actively have to seek out the content you want instead of getting it handed directly to you, most of the time, people tend to stay in their lane unless a situation calls for them to do otherwise. it's the goddamn moderators that are the problem. the amount of advertisements on youtube were not nearly this bad like five years ago. it used to be that you got one skippable advertisement- typically relating to the videos you were watching- that you could skip past after like five seconds. now you get two unskippable 15 second advertisements in a row, or a six-second ad that beats the point of having the goddamn skip feature in the first place, and apparently they've started putting advertisements if you so much as pause the video. i could understand if the case was the platform hitting a snag and needing to pander to get money- but this is YOUTUBE we're talking about. it's obvious they're only doing this to push people into buying their stupid premium plan, and the real kicker is- it isnt working. if people are watching youtube on any form of browser that allows for it, they're just using ad-blocker extensions. you would think youtube would take this as a sign to maybe take it down a notch, but no- they just started fighting against adblockers by attempting to ban them on their platform. i think that part of the reason this has been going on for so long (and likely will continue for a while) is because even though a lot of youtube's users use adblockers to watch videos uninterrupted, they arent trying to call youtube out on their nonsense to make any real changes.

all in all, if we want to make the internet a better place, we need to hold both its users and the people in charge accountable- take a stance against outright harm, and file complaints on a platform's website to let them know you want to see real change. the longer we continue to sit around and do nothing about these problems, the longer they'll continue to be around- and the worse they're going to become.