ABSTRACT
The rise of social media represents arguably the biggest single change to the British media landscape over the last decade or so. This chapter examines some of the distinctive features of the social media industry. Part one discusses the way the audience is utilised as both a source of content and personal data, which is then used for targeted advertising. Part two provides an overview of the use of social media in Britain, including the most popular platforms. Part three analyses the particular underlying economic characteristics of the social media industries and how they help to explain the domination of the industry by a handful of platforms, three of which are owned by a single company, Meta (Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp). The final part of the chapter examines the British government’s ongoing attempt to regulate different forms of content accessed via social media through its planned ‘online harms’ legislation.
