Alterative Social Media Structures: Tsu

Source: Tsu

Alterative Social Media Structures: Tsu

For this blog post I wanted to delve a little further into Fuch’s critique of social media structures and platforms as being hyper exploitative of their users (in the sense that users are seldom paid for their revenue generating labour on the platforms). In-class discussion surrounding this issue seemed to indicate that we are quite far from a consensus on whether or not these platforms offer a fair trade for unpaid labour. To hopefully add to this discussion I would like to present the social media platform Tsu. Tsu is an alternative social media structure that aims to pay users for their content. It largely appears to be trying to compete with Facebook by offering similar services to users while giving them a large share of revenue that they generate (90% of advertising and 50% of content driven revenue).

The space constraints of these posts limits the level of analysis that can be offered here but at first glance Tsu seems to be attempting to address the issue of exploitation without appropriate monetary compensation. While it seems that such a social media structure is a step in the right direction there may still be issues with privacy rights regarding personal information, ownership, access to information, and user agency. Further research is needed to determine whether or not such issues are addressed by the platform (although a restructuring of the company so that users have a voice within its operation in the social democratic manner that Fuchs describes in chapter 3 might help).

What I am hoping to point out by introducing Tsu is that an alternative social media structure is not just possible but already exists. Such alternative structures may even be profitable (and thus viable) within our current socio-economic structure (as some may argue that alternative media structures are not viable within neo-liberalism). We do not need to settle or advocate for current social media structures without considering alternatives. I would urge readers to seriously consider whether or not we wish to express to the world, through compliance with existing social media structures, that unpaid exploitation is acceptable within our social system (as servitude is a slippery and dangerous slope).

Works Cited

N.A.. Facebook. Facebook 2016. Accessed 21 January 2016 <www.facebook.com>.

Fuchs, Christian. Social Media: A Critical Introduction. London: SAGE Publications Inc., 2014.

N.A.. Tsu. Tsu LLC 2016. Accessed 21 January 2016 <http://www.tsu.co/>.