The power of social media companies has grown with their number of users.

The ugly influence of social media companies can be seen in recent elections around the world, with the spreading of fake news and the encumbering of information and the truth.

The consequences have been devastating - violence, riots and civil unrest. Lives were lost, hatred fanned and properties and futures destroyed.

The world has observed the abject failure of social media companies to self-regulate, as well as the inadequate and knee-jerk attempts made by regulators to solve the problem.

The social media universe has become too vast for regulators to be able to administer specific rules without leaving gaping holes in this ever-growing web.

I beseech every government to compel these platforms to take down all political posts. Their powerful artificial intelligence tools are more than capable of doing this.

This onus should be fully on the "social media companies". Make them genuine social media companies, and not just in name. Let the people and communities regain their normalcy.

Chew Kwok Choong