As social media platforms increasingly take on roles and responsibilities traditionally associated with nation states, new frameworks to evaluate their fragility must be developed. Using The Fund For Peace’s Fragile State Index as a model, Haythornthwaite, Mai & Gruzd (2024) articulated the Social Media Fragility Indicators, a set of indicators to measure and evaluate the fragility of social media platforms. Building on this, the working group will discuss and refine the proposed indicators. The overarching goal is to develop a robust framework that can provide prescient insights into the long-term viability of platforms, inform strategic interventions, and highlight cross-platform issues.
To advance this work, the working group will convene a set of international experts from diverse fields to evaluate the sources of social media fragility, refine the initial set of indicators of social media fragility, and devise measures to assess the fragility of social media platforms based on these indicators.
The workshop outcomes in the form of a summary report will be shared on the working group’s page. We will also pursue a panel submission to disseminate the workshop results at relevant conferences such as the International Conference on Social Media & Society and Trust & Safety.
Main research areas
- Social media
- Platform governance
- Content moderation
- Splinternet
Research Results
The working group meeting yielded substantial progress in the following areas:
- Refinement of the Social Media Fragility Indicators: Participants deepened the theoretical and empirical understanding of each indicator. Feedback prompted refinements to several definitions and clarified overlapping issues.
- Assessment Framework Development: The group identified relevant areas of concern and questions to consider, guiding future empirical assessments and laying the groundwork for creating a Social Media Fragility Index.
- Applied Case Knowledge: The real-world cases presented at the meeting validated the utility of the indicators and highlighted tensions among transparency, platform governance, and user agency.
The group identified opportunities to extend this work by:
- Pursuing joint participation at academic conferences and collaborative research proposals for funding bodies interested in social media governance and digital rights;
- Continuing as an informal network to share insights and research opportunities in the relevant areas.
Haythornthwaite, Caroline. Social Media as Fragile State: Vulnerabilities, Pressures, and Human Rights, De Gruyter, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111829920