“No one will be vilified or slandered. No one is allowed to do that."

Sounds like the above message is about as close as we can get to the direction that Japan's new social networking platform is headed. Did you know that a new social media platform is emerging that, with the help of AI, can almost completely weed out the harmful ones?

Online Can Be a Bit Toxic These Days?

A while back some of the big tech companies, especially social media companies, held hearings on Capitol Hill. Apparently, the last hearing included Meta (Facebook), TikTok, X (Twitter), Snapchat, and Discord.

This is not the first time that these large companies have been confronted with the issue.

Social media has changed the way people connect. Nowadays, you can create an unlimited number of accounts for free, so you can jump on the Internet and say whatever you like to people without immediate repercussions.

In Japan, in order to create a utopia, a social networking platform called "Dystopia" was launched in September 2023, which will make all posts into policy with the help of AI.

For example, it seems that if you use the word "むかつく," it will be filtered by an algorithm and display text that means "Your post has been censored by AI”.

Instead of blocking the post altogether, "むかつく" would be replaced with something like, "ちょっと腹が立ちますね”.

The AI does all the policing, but the rules and standards it adheres to will change at various points. In October 2023, social networking platforms will have two ways of doing things: a voting system and a plan that allows them to propose censorship rules.

Dystopia Censorship

AI is a hot topic these days, and ChatGPT is a pioneer when it comes to text-based artificial intelligence. In this case, the social networking platform Dystopia integrates with ChatGPT to replace words it deems inappropriate with more mellow ones.

Other words that are filtered out include:

-ゴミ (gomi, trash) to わたしのまわりはいつもきれいに保たれています！(_watashi no mawari ha itsumo kirei ni tamotareteimasu, _I alawys keep things clean)

-消えて(kiete) to わたしのような存在になってください！(watashi no you na sonzai ni natte kudasai)

According to Mr. Omori, the president of "相談箱(soudan-bako) " the company that created Dystopia, the goal was not only to eliminate slander and libel.

Words from the CEO

"I originally thought that if we could replace social networking abuse with more toned-down language, we could live happier lives," he said.

"But if we did that, it would be like a police state, and the current state of surveillance is a dystopia."

"What I really want to do is to make people think, 'Can I really be happy by restricting free speech?'"

Is SNS Free of Toxicity the Best?

Dystopia has had 50,000 registrations in the first four days since its release. I think that's an impressive rate of growth, but what do you think?

Do you think that if we censored all hate speech, slander, and toxicity, we would end up with a police state?　If so, would that be the best way?　And can we live happily under constant surveillance?

This article covers platforms that remove or change "bad" words, but it doesn't stop there: social networking sites also allow inappropriate photos and predators to attack unsuspecting children via DM.

There is growing concern among government officials around the world, as governments suspect that social networking sites are sending out bad content that is confusing our way of thinking.

As social media develops, we need to think about how we can improve it to make our lives better!