Abstract

Despite the ever-growing presence of social media platforms, few have studied their impact on security as a whole. While discussions on security issues that stem from social media often hold users responsible, this thesis argues that the platforms themselves and the way they are constructed create insecurity. This project aims, first and foremost, to establish the role of social media platforms in eroding ontological security and spreading agnotology. These two concepts play a central part in this project's explanation of the security threats emanating from social media platforms. To examine these threats, the thesis will make use of a dual methodology. Firstly, its research method involves a scale by scale analysis, referring to scales of security. The individual and international scales offer complimentary outlooks on social media's spreading of insecurity. The individual scale will lead us to discuss the links between social media, ontological security and how addiction creates a vicious circle for individual users, through the instrumentalization of secondary literature analysis. Through its study of the international scale, this thesis will highlight social media's role in creating and fostering alternative perspectives on truth and reality and how this, in turn, leads to real-world security...