ABSTRACT
The architecture of social media—the design of the actual components that make up social media and their interrelations—is ultimately based on code written by developers. The politics of social media may have the power to affect the behaviours, preferences and value systems of individuals and groups according to the intentions of those operating social media platforms. Politics of network structure with an ephemeral nature should be classified as politics of dynamics. Ephemeral types of network structures are the shapes and patterns we see in the links connecting people in social networks as information flows on topical issues. In the information age, the ability to control the flows of information is a significant source of power. The politics of information flows refers mainly to the conflict around how information, the most critical resource in social media, is shared and distributed among users.
