Social media plays a major role in spreading hate speech and falsehood. People spend considerable time online. It happens at the cost of print and broadcast media, books, theatre etc. The audience pulled by social media is driven by malign behaviour. Sensational news and falsehoods are the real attention getters. Social media originally started by aiming at democratisation of speech and free access to users. Each one can post a video on Reels or Shorts. There are unintended social consequences of this. It focuses the audience on malicious speech rather than on truth. It explodes viewership. That gives a boost to digital advertising. The traditional media advertising is drying up, and thus it is dying.

Official regulation and self-regulation are used to curtail hate and malicious speech. But that is not enough. As social media earns its profits through advertising, there is an inherent tendency not to curb the speech too much, thus affecting their profits.

Nobel laureate in economics and former chief economist of the World Bank, Paul Romer, suggests that a sin tax should be levied on advertising in social media to deincentivise harmful messaging. It is a moot point whether it could curb the malicious speech. Yes it can have two positive effects — shift again of some advertising from digital to traditional media, and there will be more money for social spending to deal with the consequences of undesirable messaging. AI can assist in taxing malicious communication.