Technology

Let me put this in simpler terms. Forums have existed for thousands of years. Let's go back to Roman times. They're speaking in forums, talking to each other, etc. Then one dude decides to start his own forum where he's gonna bring CSAM or worse to the forum and start sharing it with others, they even might start doing plays. The Roman government cracks down and says that everyone who is engaging in any sort of communication needs to start registering with the government in order to even talk to each other. That even includes letters and books, public government meetings, plays, etc. Even though they're all completely different scenarios. The only similarity here is that people are communicating.

That's the situation we're in right now. The government decided to use the word forum (social media) to be a boogeyman to regulate talking (forums) and disguised it as regulating bad guys, even though the law literally applies to all forms of communication. They hijacked the word forum (social media) and expanded it to mean everything: plays, books, letters, stores, meetings (streaming sites, encyclopedias, blogs).

Take the word back. Stop using forum (social media) to mean the world. It has a specific meaning. Use it appropriately.

Amazon does not have followers.

Oh yes it does.

It doesn’t even have comments.

Sorry they call them "Answers" but it sure does look like a traditional forum to me. Let's see. We've got upvotes and downvotes, people can ask questions, and people can respond to those questions.

It has a review section. It is not a place people have conversations or discussions.

well it also has a review section, but it has a comment, ah sorry, Q&A section as well. People are talking there, they are voting on things. It's just as much a social media site as lemmy is. It even has profile pages!

Using your real name doesn’t matter. Talking about your daily life doesn’t matter. A forum is a place where you gather to discuss topics in an open, public space.

uhh. yeah. you're agreeing with me. Forums aren't social media. Commenting on things existed before social media ever did. But under these definitions that people are using, literally Amazon is social media. That makes zero fucking sense. When you define social media in such a broad sense it becomes a completely useless word except for governments to remove your freedoms. Laws regulating "social media" that go by the current (wrong) dictionary definitions will regulate every single site you use. It's idiotic!

Look at the definition that @TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee posted:

Social media refers to online platforms where users can share information and connect with virtual communities through text, video, photos, and other content.

That literally defines amazon. People post pictures and text to share information (reviews, Q&A) and to connect with other owners or potential buyers of the product. Some of the users are owners of shops, they are posting information and links to their other sites and store pages. Users can even link out to their TikTok (look at the first screenshot above if you don't believe me).

If your government is using this idiotic definition then your rights are being removed from every website you touch. This isn't some "oh social media is only these sites I think it is, it's not amazon, it's not wikipedia, it's not blogs". If your government is using that definition (which is one of many that are illogical, idiotic, and cover everything under the sun) then all of those sites count as social media.

A word that is so broad as to indicate humans communicating becomes completely useless in the context of government regulation, news sites, etc. Forums aren't social media.