Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Private Governance of Freedom of Expression on Social Media Platforms: EU content regulation through the lens of human rights standards

Private Governance of Freedom of Expression on Social Media Platforms: EU content regulation... AbstractFor years, social media platforms have been perceived as a democratic gain, facilitating freedom of expression, easy access to a variety of information, and new means of public participation. At the same time, social media have enabled the dissemination of illegal content and incitement to discrimination, hostility, or violence, fuelling several content regulation initiatives. From the perspective of freedom of expression, this development embraces two challenges: first, private actors govern freedom of expression, without human rights safeguards; second, this privatised governance of human rights is encouraged and legitimised by a broad range of EU policy initiatives. Informed by an analysis of Danish Facebook users’ attitudes toward public debate on Facebook, we pose the question: How do social media companies such as Facebook balance various human rights considerations on their platforms, particularly in relation to freedom of expression? We analyse the abovementioned challenges through a human rights lens, which serves as the analytical framework for this article. Further, we suggest some strategies for moving forward, drawing on recent recommendations from the UN human rights system. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Nordicom Review de Gruyter

Private Governance of Freedom of Expression on Social Media Platforms: EU content regulation through the lens of human rights standards

Jørgensen, Rikke Frank; Zuleta, Lumi
Nordicom Review , Volume 41 (1): 17 – Jan 1, 2020
Download PDF
17 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/de-gruyter/private-governance-of-freedom-of-expression-on-social-media-platforms-D6DiGXku8H
Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
© 2020 Rikke Frank Jørgensen et al., published by Sciendo
ISSN
2001-5119
eISSN
2001-5119
DOI
10.2478/nor-2020-0003
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

AbstractFor years, social media platforms have been perceived as a democratic gain, facilitating freedom of expression, easy access to a variety of information, and new means of public participation. At the same time, social media have enabled the dissemination of illegal content and incitement to discrimination, hostility, or violence, fuelling several content regulation initiatives. From the perspective of freedom of expression, this development embraces two challenges: first, private actors govern freedom of expression, without human rights safeguards; second, this privatised governance of human rights is encouraged and legitimised by a broad range of EU policy initiatives. Informed by an analysis of Danish Facebook users’ attitudes toward public debate on Facebook, we pose the question: How do social media companies such as Facebook balance various human rights considerations on their platforms, particularly in relation to freedom of expression? We analyse the abovementioned challenges through a human rights lens, which serves as the analytical framework for this article. Further, we suggest some strategies for moving forward, drawing on recent recommendations from the UN human rights system.

Journal

Nordicom Review – de Gruyter

Published: Jan 1, 2020

Keywords: human rights; social media; content regulation; freedom of expression; EU

References

  • Regulating private harms online: Content regulation under human rights law
  • Framing human rights: Exploring storytelling within internet companies
  • Free speech in the algorithmic society: Big data, private governance, and new school speech regulation
  • Public strategies for Internet co-regulation in the United States, Europe and China