Paper Number
ICIS2025-1970
Paper Type
Complete
Abstract
Centralized social media (CSM) are criticized for issues such as data exploitation, content manipulation, and unilateral governance. In response, decentralized social media (DSM) platforms, such as federated and blockchain-based, have emerged, promising greater user autonomy, privacy, and participatory governance. However, the extent to which DSM address or merely reconfigure CSM’s problems remains unclear. This study conducts a scoping literature review to analyze challenges across three dimensions: platform ownership, technical infrastructure, and user agency. Using qualitative coding, we synthesize critical issues and find that decentralization redistributes, rather than resolves, social media’s core challenges. While DSM reduce corporate dominance, they introduce new governance complexities, infrastructural barriers, and issues related to user agency such as extremism and misinformation. We conclude that DSM shift the locus of control and responsibility, requiring innovative governance to realize their potential.
Recommended Citation
Fischer-Pressler, Diana; Volkmer, Sara Alida; and Urbach, Nils, "One Solution to fix them all: Does Decentralization fix the Problems of Social Media?" (2025). ICIS 2025 Proceedings. 5.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2025/blockchain/blockchain/5
One Solution to fix them all: Does Decentralization fix the Problems of Social Media?
Centralized social media (CSM) are criticized for issues such as data exploitation, content manipulation, and unilateral governance. In response, decentralized social media (DSM) platforms, such as federated and blockchain-based, have emerged, promising greater user autonomy, privacy, and participatory governance. However, the extent to which DSM address or merely reconfigure CSM’s problems remains unclear. This study conducts a scoping literature review to analyze challenges across three dimensions: platform ownership, technical infrastructure, and user agency. Using qualitative coding, we synthesize critical issues and find that decentralization redistributes, rather than resolves, social media’s core challenges. While DSM reduce corporate dominance, they introduce new governance complexities, infrastructural barriers, and issues related to user agency such as extremism and misinformation. We conclude that DSM shift the locus of control and responsibility, requiring innovative governance to realize their potential.
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