Pilar Mazo |
Logroño (EFE).- Social networks are in a “crucial moment” of changes and, after 20 years of existence, like Facebook, which was the first to launch, they are reinventing themselves towards new formats, such as Fediverso, an incipient movement that It suggests being able to interact with each other.
This was explained in an interview with EFE by Fernando Checa, PhD in Computer Science and director of the Master’s in Social Networks at the International University of La Rioja (UNIR), for whom “in the short term, there will be important changes in these platforms, as We know them now.”
In this context, he places Fediverso, an environment in which social networks will begin to be open, as is the case with email, and which seeks the existence of a broad set of protocols, so that any social network can be interacted with. without necessarily being a user of them, which currently, he specifies, is impossible.
Currently, to comment on a photograph posted, for example, on Instagram, or a message on X (formerly Twitter) you have to be a user of the network in question, otherwise it is not possible to do so, says this doctor in Computer Science and specialist in digital projects .
Social networking companies, he explains, are already behind this fledgling movement, which is Fediverso, in which the company Meta – parent company of the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp networks – wants to participate.
This interest of Meta in being part of this movement has aroused the expectation of “other actors, creators and participants of Fediverso, who are a bit defensive because Meta is still ‘the enemy'” for them, due to its broad dimension. .
Fediverso, he assures, will end up establishing itself in the panorama of social networks, since “it seems incredible that we have been on islands of knowledge for so many years” and each of these networks has its own algorithms.
Artificial intelligence, at the service of the user
Within this process of constant evolution in the field of social networks, artificial intelligence is gaining more and more weight, which “will affect the interests of the user much more,” says this specialist.
As Elon Musk puts it in X, he adds, “more and more we are going to stop talking so much about the algorithm of each of the social networks, which is the one that shows us the content that users access on these platforms.”
The third vector that Checa appreciates in this reinvention of social networks is the field of user privacy.
It is “worrying”, he says, that the owner of the content that a user posts on a social network, such as a photograph or a comment, is the company that owns that network.
In general, he explains, these companies do not fully meet the security expectations in terms of privacy that the EU determines and it is an area in which he considers that progress must also be made.
Regarding the emergence of new social networks, he believes that “there are movements, even within Meta”, that require “being on the lookout”.
From a technical point of view, he explains, “creating a new social network does not involve great complexity, although, logically, it requires an investment.”
In his opinion, “it is possible that” new social networks may emerge, although “what makes them important is the number of users that integrate them”, which is what having a business space brings them, with few exceptions, “social networks Socialists live off advertising.
