INSTAGRAM AND FREE EXPRESSION

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 Instagram is a platform that has been around since 2010 and it quickly surged to one of the top social media platforms. Now owned by Facebook, Instagram created a platform that originally was created to allow users to post photos. The app included amatuer editing features and allowed users to post captions and interact with each other via comments, likes and followers. Instagram is one of the platforms that paved the way for the value of free expression via social media. 


“Goal: transforming Instagram from a photo app for sharing pics of puppies and pizza into a media company that communicates through photos."-Mark Zukerburg


Instagram specifically, as it have evolved, has been one of the largest channels for users to exercise free expression. For example, using hashtags to form movements and Instagram “stories” to share your daily life. The most recent example is Instagram’s eruption of content regarding #BlackLivesMatter and “JusticeforBreonnaTaylor. By having hashtags, it groups posts together, allowing there to be a sense of community and assembly regarding movements. Instagram not only gives users a way to foster community, it also gives them a way to share their opinions visually and creatively. It is a photography based platform, but the art that has meaning and fuels movements since its creation has been astonishing. 


It helps advance the value of free expression in many ways, but three that stand out are it being a marketplace of ideas and promoting tolerance, innovation and dissent. Instagram helps spread differing ideas and help diffuse new ideas to adopt around the globe. Although some ideas are radical, skewed, or invalid; Instagram allows a platform for thoughts to be heard and ideas to be shared. The downside to an app that is open to users starting at age 13 is the misinformation and hate speech that often comes along with free expression. Although the benefits of Instagram far outway the negatives, with any social media platform there is potential for hate speech that is protected under the First Amendment.



Are we all starting to realise that Instagram influence is ...






Sources:


https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2018/09/25/kevin-systrom-in-his-own-words-how--instagram-was-founded-and-became-the-worlds-favorite-social-media-app/#60495eb42bfd 


https://fortune.com/2014/10/10/how-kevin-systrom-got-started/

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