>I think there are giant weak spots in the product offerings of social media companies Agreed. I'm not sure that the fix is necessarily to regionalize though.

>I think there are giant weak spots in the product offerings of social media companies Agreed. I'm not sure that the fix is necessarily to regionalize though. I think rather that the weakness is in the format, mechanics, algorithms, etc. We need to re-imagine social media in general (yes, I know this might sound hand-wavy). The true fix might be so different that we don't even call it social media, and... >there is a potential for regional networks to be more harmful Exactly. That's why I believe we need a more fundamental change. All of the current formats have the capacity to wreak havoc, whether globally or locally. >I think its hubris to think Facebook etc are meaningfully connecting us to individuals around the world Yeah, I don't know that Facebook was ever meaningfully trying in this regard, except to promote some tag line, "something-something connecting the world" to make it seem they were on some noble quest. All they really wanted was eyeballs, and judging from the sheer stream of garbage that is today's FB feed, they're not even pretending anymore.