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PICK up a pack of cigarettes and you will probably see a terrifying picture of cancer lesions with a stern warning about how smoking can kill. For decades in the US, this was called the surgeon general鈥檚 warning, and it was a reminder that cigarettes are so bad that the government鈥檚 top doctor was against them. Now, the current surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, has recommended that we

Speaking in mid-July to , Murthy said that social media networks played a 鈥渕ajor role鈥� in circulating misinformation about covid-19. He said that this 鈥渉arms people鈥檚 health鈥� and 鈥渃osts them their lives鈥�. It sounds like Murthy鈥檚 opinions go all the way to the top: US President Joe Biden said that social media is 鈥渒illing people鈥� who are getting conspiracy-tinged news about the pandemic from their feeds. In response, Facebook has said that it was being made a scapegoat for the White House missing some of its goals.

Despite widespread availability of vaccines, of people in the US are fully vaccinated. Of the remaining unvaccinated people, to get the shot. A recent study by the due to misinformation on social platforms like Facebook and Twitter. The group identified a handful of Facebook influencers called the 鈥渄isinformation dozen鈥� who peddled tales about the evils of vaccines to millions of people. The result has been a massive pandemic aftershock as the delta variant rips through unvaccinated populations. When you look at the data that way, warning labels on social media start to make sense.

It鈥檚 an idea that Safiya Umoja Noble, at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of Algorithms of Oppression, has been researching for many years. She has argued that social media platforms should be regulated like the tobacco industry. I asked Noble what she thought about her work finally being floated as policy.

鈥淭here are many Black women, women of color and LGBTQ+ scholars and activists who have been issuing warnings and trying to get the attention of policy makers, but unfortunately, until men in power speak, it isn鈥檛 heard,鈥� she told me via direct message. 鈥淗aving said that, a warning is important but it will be meaningless without the repair and restoration that needs to be made to many global communities that have been undermined and harmed already.鈥�

For Noble and her colleagues, a warning isn鈥檛 enough. We need to hold companies accountable for the damage they inflict, and that means an end to the notion that social platforms are just allowing the circulation of 鈥渇ree speech鈥�. In the US, free speech laws are rife with exemptions: people cannot simply say anything, especially if it involves endangering others. That鈥檚 the logic behind laws that make it unlawful for people to share sexualised images of children, even if they didn鈥檛 personally create the images.

I think one of the big fears about regulation is that it will stifle all speech, preventing people from engaging with each other on social media in an honest, open way. But that assumes a very narrow definition of engagement. Currently, most social media platforms encourage people to participate by surfacing content that gets your dander up, making you so emotional that you just have to post a response. But what if we started encouraging another kind of engagement 鈥� one that feels less like mashing the anger button and more like鈥� voting?

鈥淚nfluencers called the 鈥榙isinformation dozen鈥� peddle tales about the evils of vaccines to millions of followers鈥�

Long-time science journalist talk that she always tries to get her readers engaged without resorting to hot takes. Instead, she said she 鈥渢reats readers like voters, participants in a democratic process鈥�. She points them to hearings they can attend, and explains how to comment on regulations under consideration. The point, she said, is to show how to engage in solutions rather than false debates.

What if our social media helped us become more engaged in government processes? I鈥檓 not talking about putting an ignorable box in the corner of your feed that says, 鈥淲arning: This content may not be good for you.鈥� I鈥檓 imagining a world where a button asks: 鈥淪hare with your local representative?鈥� Maybe you鈥檙e given one-click access to a public comment area on political issues in your community. Instead of showcasing 鈥渙pinions鈥� about the pandemic, what if social media showed you a list of places to volunteer to help neighbours who are too sick to work?

If social media has taught us nothing else, it鈥檚 that we are all desperate to engage. We want our opinions known, and we want to contribute to debates about our futures. But without good regulations, our urge to help is hindered by a web of lies. It doesn鈥檛 have to be that way. We can change. All we have to do is engage.