Apr 25, 2022
Should social media companies continue to rely on ex post standards to regulate what their users post? Or should platforms look to free speech jurisprudence to make these determinations? Are these companies publishers entitled to free speech protections? Or are they just platforms primarily concerned with hosting their users' content?
As this debate goes on, Evelyn Douek thinks this framing misses the point. Douek, of Harvard Law School and the Knight First Amendment Foundation, argues that a free-speech paradigm gives social media entities a possibly undeserved amount of authority to shape domestic and international events. Instead of trying to draw the line between "good" and "bad" speech, she recommends a systems level ex ante regulatory in which online platforms are treated as bureaucratic agencies and regulated using administrative law norms such as accountability and transparency.
You can find more about Evelyn Douek's work on her website, and you can follow her on Twitter.