Towards Trust-based Decentralized Ad-Hoc Social Networks

Social Media has transformed modern day society. It can be argued that one of the main drivers behind this transformation are novel ways to effectively distribute content in a highly targeted fashion and at scale. Recently, this effectiveness has come under attack based on new phenomena known as Fake News, Filter Bubble and Echo Chambers. The public debate about the impact of these phenomena on modern day society ranges from demanding a complete social media shutdown to government intervention and censorship. Furthermore, it appears that Social Media Platform providers are not sure what countermeasures are needed to address these new challenges. The main concern is that Black Mirror like scenarios will emerge simply by allowing privately held companies decide what content is conforming to public norms leading to a distortion of values. This paper presents an alternative solution by focusing on empowering meaningful relationships and not content engagement. The main motivation behind the proposed solution is to create social networks that follow a 'Trust by Design' paradigm. This paper introduces and discusses the above-mentioned challenges and presents a novel new social media concept seeking to overcome current challenges.