Over the past 15 years or so, social media has gained tremendous traction. Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Twitter and YouTube have reached soaring heights as companies. Social media has its benefits, such as global connectivity and low barrier to entry. It also gives people a platform for expression. The sector has taken a dark turn in recent years, however, igniting aggression and spreading false information, while, at the same time, raising questions of censorship. Eric Yang, founder and executive director of Junto — a nonprofit decentralized social media startup — sees three main issues with the current landscape.
The first of the three issues mentioned by Yang relates to governance, which is essentially the people or entities tasked with a given platform's overwatch and management. "A lot of these companies are set up as for-profit institutions that have a fiduciary obligation to their investors," Yang told Cointelegraph in an interview.