Srs Bsns: 2020’s Biggest Moments In Social Media And What It Might Mean For The Internet In 2021

The past year has been quite an eventful one, impacting just about every aspect of our lives in some fashion, but the internet itself saw a number of significant changes and developments in 2020 that will forever leave their mark on the web. From antitrust lawsuits to bans on social media platforms and unprecedented hacks to election misinformation, it was quite a momentous year in the online world.

With so many noteworthy events from last year, we figured we’d take a look at some of the most important while also looking into how these developments of the past may impact the internet going forward. So, here are five of the biggest moments in tech from 2020 just in case you missed them, and what these might allude to in 2021 for the internet at large.

Trump Administration Crackdowns On Social Media

It’s safe to say that no other president or accompanying administration has had such a volatile relationship with social media. Whether this was attributed to Donald Trump’s chaotic presence on Twitter or that it's been a long time coming, the 45th president of the U.S. announced his plans to regulate social media last summer with an executive order and caused quite a stir among the online community.

Among the planned regulations, the Trump administration sought to have the FCC develop more oversight of the industry that would require platforms to demonstrate their content regulation “be carried out in good faith,” particularly surrounding political biases. Despite the FCC never taking the desired action Trump intended, the sentiment is one that many conservative politicians have continued pushing. In addition to this, a Pew Research Center survey last year found that 72 percent of adults in the U.S. agree that these companies have too much influence and power in politics.

Though much of this never came to fruition by the end of his term, its impact had a lasting effect on other politicians who took note of the need to regulate social media (on both sides of the aisle), so it’s likely that the aftershocks it produced will lead to some changes this year for the industry. Only time will tell how significant these changes are, but with years of daunting growth and unchecked power, the U.S. and other countries around the world seem poised to crack down on its control in the near future.

Twitter Bitcoin Hack

Major hacks on social media have been relatively few and far between over the last few years, but in 2020, we saw Twitter facing an extraordinary breach that culminated in the biggest hack we’ve seen for quite a while. In mid-July, the Twitter accounts of several high-profile individuals, cryptocurrency companies and other notable brands were suddenly taken over by scammers. This hack resulted in people transferring Bitcoins to an address linked within the tweets of compromised accounts.

From Kanye West to Elon Musk and Joe Biden to Barack Obama, the over 130 Verified Twitter Accounts that were hacked over the course of the day as the company scrambled to resolve the breach eventually saw the hackers wind up with more than $110,000. By the end of July, the DOJ arrested three individuals tied to the scam with a 22-year-old Florida man charged with aiding and abetting international access to the platform.

Described as “the worst hack of a major social media platform yet” by a cybersecurity expert, the scam led researchers to raise the alarm over concerns that such a breach could have dire consequences on important online discussions, especially leading up to the 2020 presidential election. Because of this, it’s likely that the hack will not soon be forgotten, and we anticipate that it will have most social media companies doing a serious reevaluation of their security measures this year if they haven’t already.

TikTok Bans and Partnerships

One of 2020’s biggest news stories in the internet sphere was none other than the bans TikTok faced, which began in the summer and continued well into the fall. As one of the fastest-growing platforms in recent years, the video-sharing and networking app faced intense scrutiny from several countries that kicked off with a total ban on TikTok in India. From there, the United Kingdom, Australia and the U.S. each considered implementing similar measures over growing concerns that its Chinese ownership was a potential risk to national security.

The Trump administration then continued perpetuating these risks and concerns, which culminated in an executive order that TikTok be sold to a U.S. company with a 45-day deadline attached. Throughout all of the turmoil, TikTok denied that they provided any sort of aid to the Chinese government. Ultimately, after a slew of bids from companies like Microsoft, TikTok eventually partnered with Oracle, who proposed a number of planned changes to keep the app in line with Trump’s requirements and save it from a ban.

Near the beginning of the fall, it seemed that either Oracle’s partnership with TikTok had done enough to quell Trump’s threats of a ban or that he simply became disinterested as the election took over priority. Either way, it appears that TikTok is safe for the time being in the U.S., and with 2020 seeing it rise to become one of the most popular social media platforms around, you can expect that it won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.

QAnon Conspiracy Theory

No other conspiracy theory loomed quite as large as QAnon last year, despite it circulating the web since 2017. Just in case you’re still unsure of what exactly this whole thing is, the theory surrounding QAnon is that there’s a secret global faction of Satanic pedophiles who rule the world and control every aspect of our daily lives.

Associated with fringe supporters of Trump, many believe his election was the first act in bringing down the underground world order, with “The Storm” being the final event where members in this devil-worshipping ring will ultimately be locked away as the U.S. military takes control of the country and creates a utopia for those who remain.

Over the latter half of 2020, QAnon’s prevalence boomed massively online and was spread through groups on social media platforms such as Facebook or sites like 8chan. Though “Q” has yet to be identified, 8chan’s creator Fredrick Brennan told us during our interview last year that he speculated it was current 8chan owner Jim Watkins, who acquired the site in 2018, or someone close to him since they were profiting from its followers.

As the conspiracy continued to attract new believers leading up to the election, several major sites and social media companies began banning groups of QAnon followers in an attempt to stem its spread. Although the extent of its connections to the storming of the Capitol earlier this month is unknown, several notable supporters of the theory were in attendance, including the QAnon Shaman himself.

The conspiracy may be banned from most big platforms at this point, but it doesn’t appear to be fizzling out just yet, so expect to hear about it more throughout 2021.

Big Tech Antitrust Cases, Social Media Moderation and Section 230

Wrapping these last few major developments into one, last year was perhaps the biggest push for additional oversight and regulation of tech companies, social media and the fate of Section 230 (one of the internet’s most important protections). Largely allowed a hands-off approach for over a decade now, this year could see some immense changes to the internet as we currently know it.

In the fall, the infamous big tech antitrust report was released and had a clear message for Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook, which lawmakers said have engaged in a range of anti-competitive behavior over the years. Citing these practices that have given each of them a stranglehold on various sectors of the web, the U.S. government has plans to overhaul antitrust laws in the near future to allow for more competition.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai each made appearances before Congress last year to testify about various practices their companies engaged in. The Senate hearings were intensely heated with both Republicans and Democrats firing off a wide array of accusations about moderation policies, stifling competition, failing to address concerns over misinformation or being biased against certain political ideologies.

Many of these debates are still underway, with Google being the only one to get sued by the DOJ over antitrust violations back in October. Because of this, it’s hard to say exactly what the government plans to do about these monopolies or accusations for now, but it seems highly probable that they’ll be taking a closer look at Section 230 in 2021 among other things that’ll undoubtedly have major effects on the internet we know now.