Think You Own Your Social Media Accounts? Think Again

It’s fun to be critical of social media, but there’s no denying the massive influence it has on individuals, societies, businesses, and even the political landscape. Since social media plays such a big part in so many areas of your digital life, it’s important to know how it all factors into your personal rights and privacy. Today, we want to examine the idea of who really owns what you post on social media and who is in control of your accounts… because it’s definitely not you.

So Who Actually Owns Your Social Media Accounts?

You might be under the assumption that your Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, and other social accounts belong to you—and it would make sense to believe in this assumption.

But the reality is not so clear-cut. Most nations have language in their national constitutions regarding the right to freedom of speech and expression within the confines of the law, and they see social media as an extension of themselves. There are, of course, the outliers, for whose citizens are limited in their self-expression and in their access to social media.

This article isn’t really about that, but it’s important to establish context for who is really in control of what you post on social media.

A bankruptcy case involving Infowars founder Alex Jones shows just how muddy the waters can get when selling assets that may (or may not) belong to you. Infowars is a site notorious for peddling conspiracy theories and “alternative news,” so when it was put up for auction, it was pretty surprising that Global Tetrahedron, the parent company of satire website The Onion jumped at the opportunity to snag it. The Onion won the bid with $3.5 million; $1.75 million cash and at least an equal amount in equity from Sandy Hook plaintiffs that would have the right to the money from the sale of Infowars.

Of course, this set off a chain reaction, and Jones sued the potential buyers and the families that initially sued him. The situation is still ongoing.

Again, who really owns the rights to the content you post on social media? Can it be transferred to another buyer, as in the case of Elon Musk when he purchased Twitter and rebranded it to X? Musk has, of course, interjected into the aforementioned proceedings and declared that the X accounts involved with the sale cannot be transferred without permission from X, so it appears that a business can claim the right to profiles when it is in their best interest to do so.

So, what does this mean for the average user?

Similar to businesses that often get sold, no tech giant is going to bat an eyelash over the sale of a social media site… unless it benefits them to do so. The filing in the situation outlined above did yield that content posted by an account is the property of the account holder, but the holder maintains “non-exclusive rights” to the account. If the holder wants to transfer or sell an account, they first have to get the social media company to sign off on the acquisition.

Anyway, all of that is to say that it’s not necessarily you who owns and controls your social media accounts.

While it might be some time before the impact of these proceedings is rendered in full for the average user, we just wanted to bring up a potentially interesting topic that would get you thinking about data privacy and your individual rights as a user.