Towards self-moderation?

In previous posts I've discussed and raised questions on the impact and influence of government and tradtional 20th century media on social media through the Data Retention plan and #StopTheTrolls respectively.

Further to my comments (and yours - thank you!) on the Daily Telegraph's #StopTheTrolls campaign, has it actually stopped the trolls? Or was it a cynical, front-page headline-grabbing exercise complete with brand ambasadors? Traditional 20th Century media's attempt to influence emergent media I'd say.

A recently published article from the ABC, Twitter's final word on the Stop The Trolls campaign failure paints an interesting picture.

• The campaign was heavily criticised for calling for legislation which would curtail freedom of expression and the right to criticise or satirise.
• The Daily Telegraph ran a campaign for a fortnight. However, three weeks in, the petition has ground to a halt at just 732 signatures. In the meantime an anti-Alan Jones petition quickly stormed to over 100,000 signatures.
• Twitter came under pressure from Senator Conroy and despite claims to the contrary by Conroy, the company refused to go into specifics about the discussions it could say "We have not changed our policy or process for working with law enforcement."

The final paragraphs of that story reveal that Twitter has not changed its policies due to some interference from the Australian federal government.

However...

Applying political economy theory to social media would show that for an 'emergent' media, most platofrms have already been colonised by economic forces. Perhaps not the heavy hand of goverment on a particular platform, but most have been colonised by advertisers, or are now private companies with shareholders to please. Sure, social media platfroms are 'open' and can be used by just about anyone with a phone and WiFi connection, but it is hard to argue against Robert McChesney who noted that despite its claims of openness, the internet is likely to be dominated by the same corporations but with the addition of a few more players (in Macnamara 2010)

This leads me to my next question: Is our collective engagement on and through popular social media platforms turning us into a self-moderating public? One that is all too observant of guidelines, protocols, and community standards? With every comment, photo, video or update we post online on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or any of the other social media sites, I'd argue that we are simply contributing to creating a homogenic audience.