Charlie Kirk, a prominent conservative activist and close ally of US President Donald Trump, was shot and killed on Wednesday while giving a speech at Utah Valley University in Orem.
Perhaps, more than even firearms, it is social media algorithms that encourage violence.
Many academics have observed that, as social media algorithms become increasingly sophisticated, people have grown more self-centered and intolerant. In his 2019 book Upheaval: How Nations Cope With Crisis and Change, Jared Diamond recalls that in the 1990s, he could share a meal with his intellectual opponents. However, today, even delivering a speech at a university event requires security guards. Debates on university campuses increasingly escalate into physical confrontations. However, while most involve physical altercations, they rarely shock the public like Kirk’s shooting has.
Although civilians in Taiwan cannot legally possess firearms like they can in the US, vigilance is still necessary.
If, like me, you come from the early generation of Taiwanese blogging and frequented Wretch (無名小站), previously Taiwan’s leading social networking Web site, you likely sense how hostile the tone of online discourse has become. Many of those who lived during the Martial Law era stood side-by-side — whether they backed unification or independence — to resist Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) dictatorship. Figures like author, politician and historian Li Ao (李敖), democracy advocate Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕) and former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) collaborated through platforms such as the Freedom Era Weekly (自由時代). Today, political affiliation, identity, or even liking different influencers can be enough to set people at odds.
Social media allow people to make unfavorable opinions disappear with the flick of a finger, building an echo chamber that does nothing but like our posts and validate us. This can become second nature. When they encounter someone in person with a different viewpoint, they might find them intolerable.
This could be the deeper, long-term context behind Kirk’s tragic death.
Even without firearms, Taiwan’s university campuses are not devoid of danger — there could be knives, gasoline, even corrosive chemicals like aqua regia. Given this, it is imperative that families, schools and the government implement reasonable controls over children’s and adolescents’ use of digital devices. The harm social media algorithms pose to people’s health might rival that of tobacco and alcohol.
Jimway Chang has a master’s degree in history from National Tsing Hua University and is a history teacher at a high school.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
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