Irish Examiner view: First salvo is fired in an inevitable conflict

The social media profile of the Premier League who are taking part in a social media boycott until Monday. Picture: James Warwick

It is wishful thinking to hope we can return to a world before social media changed human communications almost as much as the invention of mass printing did all those centuries ago.

It is not, however, by any means delusional to hope and insist that these lucrative-beyond-comprehension platforms be managed to accentuate the positive and reject the toxic. Indeed, that objective, despite the hubris of the increasingly powerful data empires is an obligation neither individuals, corporations, nor governments can dare shirk. The malign influences they facilitate cannot be ignored indefinitely.