Enhancing privacy, censorship resistance, and user engagement in a blockchain-based social network

In the contemporary digital era, online social networks have become integral to global communication, facilitating connectivity and information dissemination. Millions of people use centralised social media platforms today, which raises concerns about user control, privacy, and censorship. These platforms profit from user data and content, as the single authority of these platforms has complete control over user data. Although peer-to-peer decentralised online social networks were developed to address the weaknesses in centralised platforms, they still have significant limitations in terms of securing privacy, and handling censorship resistance issues. In this work, we propose a novel decentralised online social network leveraging blockchain technology to address these pressing issues in centralised and peer-to-peer online social networks. The proposed system prioritizes user control by decentralizing data storage and network governance, thereby reducing the issues associated with centralized control. By employing blockchain technology, individuals maintain ownership of their data and gain greater control, thereby enhancing user privacy protection. Additionally, the cryptographic security and immutable ledger of blockchain technology protect freedom of expression and information exchange by resisting censorship. Moreover, with the integration of incentivization mechanisms, users are incentivized to contribute to the network’s growth and sustainability, as well as promoting engaging content and encouraging ownership among users. The evaluation results show that our blockchain-based decentralised online social network (DOSN) accomplishes the aim and objectives for preserving privacy, censorship resistance and enhancing user engagement in online social network with the use of blockchain technology.