As well, the author gratefully acknowledges travel support from the European Research Council grant, Computational Propaganda: Investigating the Impact of Algorithms and Bots on Political Discourse in Europe, Proposal 648311, 2015-2020, Philip N. Howard, Principal Investigator. As I will demonstrate, informal regulatory arrangements have formed a key tool through which governance stakeholders especially EU governments have sought to shape the behaviour of firms on content issues.
She has studied both law (majoring in information and media law) and political philosophy (majoring in democratic theory and STS) at the University of Amsterdam. Digital co-regulation: Designing a supranational legal framework for the platform economy [Working Paper No.
Retrieved from https://www.article19.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Self-regulation-and-%E2%80%98hate-speech%E2%80%99-on-social-media-platforms_March2018.pdf, Baumann-Pauly, D., Nolan, J., Van Heerden, A., & Samway, M. (2017). Different governance stakeholders have differing levels of regulatory capacity that they bring to the table: as Abbott and Snidal (2009b) argue, each type of actor has different competencies that are required at different phases of the regulatory process, from the initial agenda-setting and negotiations to the eventual implementation, monitoring, and enforcement of governance arrangements. Important voices, such as the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, David Kaye, have expressed hope that such models could help make platform companies more transparent, accountable, and human-rights compliant (Kaye, 2018). Stanford: Stanford Global Digital Policy Incubator. Haufler, V. (2003).
(2013). 
Zuckerberg, M. (2018). This paper provides qualitative analysis of Googles and Microsofts policies and examines case studies to enhance understanding about the privacy role of information intermediaries in self-regulatory arrangements. 1 Ample scholarship has since shown that the framing of technology companies as mere hosts or intermediaries or platforms elides the ways in which these companies set (oft-American) norms around content or speech (Klonick, 2017), algorithmically select and present information (Bucher, 2018), and assume a host of functions that combine features of publishers, media companies, telecommunications providers, and other firms (Napoli & Caplan, 2017). Decentring regulation: Understanding the role of regulation and self-regulation in a post-regulatory world. Toxic Twitter [Report]. ), Social and political dimensions of forest certification (pp. In W. Carlsnaes, T. Risse, & B. Simmons (Eds. Big Business and the State. Gillespie, T. (2010). The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly. Looking for research materials? LSE Media Policy Project. Canberra: ANU Press. The report, which was released only a few weeks after the anniversary of Facebooks fifteenth year of operation, memorably quipped that the company had operated as a digital gangster, exhibiting anti-competitive behaviour and a reckless disregard for user privacy (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, 2019, p. 91). Palo Alto: Hoover Institution. If you have feedback please send us a message. Harvard Law Review, 131(6), 15981670. ), Regulatory Theory: Foundations and Applications (pp. This graph therefore offers a snapshot of the global ecosystem of corporate regulation. Gorwa, R. (2019). 1807]. The Information Society, 34(1), 114. Relatively little scholarly work has examined its effects and impact. Newer legal frameworks such as the German Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz (NetzDG), the EU Audiovisual Media Service Directive (AVMSD), or the much discussed EU Copyright Directive tweak these liability provisions at the national or regional level. Is this feature helpful for you, or could the design be improved? for 1+3, enter 4. Using the governance triangle, we can sketch out the informal regulatory climate for content on platforms that host user-generated content (Figure 3). Regulating platform companies is easier said than done, however (Lynskey, 2017). In 2014 and 2015, a group of global digital rights organisations developed the Manila Principles on Intermediary Liability, which articulate the position that intermediaries (internet service providers (ISPs), social networks, and hosting platforms) should not have legal liability over third-party content, and that content restriction requests should be transparent and respect due process. Regulating Intermediaries to Protect Privacy Online: The Case of the German NetzDG [Discussion Paper No. Although Facebooks Oversight Body has yet to be established, it has already affected the landscape for future informal governance measures.
This is a trusted computer. The global online freedom act. At the top of the triangle (labelled #1) they place processes dominated by states, such as the 1978 German Blue Angel eco-labeling scheme (marked ECO). In order to help structure analysis of widely varying forms of governance, Abbott and Snidal (2009b, p. 52) outline the conceptual model of the Governance Triangle to help represent the groupings of actors and interests in governance schemes that create rules and processes for participating actors. Retrieved from https://www.lawfareblog.com/two-calls-tech-regulation-french-government-report-and-christchurch-call, European Commission. The Political Power of Global Corporations. In it, he claimed that he had increasingly come to believe that Facebook should not make so many important decisions about free expression and safety on [its] own, and as a result, would create an Oversight Body for content moderation that would let users appeal takedown decisions to an independent body (Zuckerberg, 2018, n.p). doi:10.5210/fm.v23i3.8283, Rubinstein, I. In 2008, the Social Networking Task Force convened multistakeholder meetings with regulators, academic experts, child safety organisations, and a group of 17 social networks, including Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Bebo, and others. doi:10.5204/thesis.eprints.120573. To support customers with accessing the latest research, IGI Global is offering a 5% pre-publication discount on all hardcover, softcover, e-books, and hardcover + e-books titles. Special economic zones (SEZs) are important doorwa As art museum educators become more involved in cu A major non-technical challenge of space activitie Public procurement is vulnerable on many levels. Back up: can users sue platforms to reinstate deleted content? The New Politics of Interdependence: Cross-National Layering in Trans-Atlantic Regulatory Disputes. Simpson, S. S. (2002). International Regulation without International Government: Improving IO Performance through Orchestration. Northeastern University, Boston, MA. Why did Chinas Alibaba platform reform its enforcement practices in line with demands from the US government and US companies? Georgetown Law Technology Review, 2(2), 376398. In 2008 the GNI officially became public with Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft as founding industry members, joined by a group of NGOs, investor groups, and academics, including Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and a number of other groups (Maclay, 2010). European Commission and IT Companies Announce Code of Conduct on Illegal Hate Speech [Press release]. Media governance: A new concept for the analysis of media policy and regulation. Perhaps even more crucial are the linkages between informal governance mechanisms and traditional forms of state regulation. New York: Oxford University Press. As the activity of firms became intertwined with virtually all important global social issues, from climate change and environmental damage to human rights and labour standards, corporations raised a vital set of governance puzzles (Fuchs, 2007; Hall & Biersteker, 2002). The GNI features three main commitments: a set of high-level principles based on international human rights law that each member company says it will internalise; guidelines on how those principles should be implemented in practice, including commitments to engage in human rights assessments and transparency reporting; and an accountability framework that outlines the system of oversight, including company self reporting, independent auditing, and various compliance mechanisms (for example, if a company is seen to not be in compliance, the framework stipulates that a 120-day special review period can be called by the board). The Right Tools: Europes Intermediary Liability Laws and the EU 2016 General Data Protection Regulation.
doi:10.1163/19426720-01401006. The internet and emerging tech sectors have been no exception (Marsden, 2011), with voluntary codes of conduct and negotiated self-regulatory agreements having been applied to a range of goals such as sustainability, child safety, and data protection. London, UK: SAGE. Since the 2016 US election, increasing public attention has been paid to how firms moderate, making important decisions about the users and types of speech they permit (Roberts, 2018), and governments around the world are steadily seeking to increase place decisions about online speech back into the hands of their citizens. The Governance Triangle: Regulatory Standards Institutions and the Shadow of the State. The GNI principles, implementation guidelines, and accountability framework are available at: globalnetworkinitiative.org. Self-regulation and hate speech on social media platforms. Her PhD research is on the contestability of algorithmic online speech governance. Some are insular industry associations that enact self-regulatory codes, while others are broader initiatives that bring together a host of different actors, and often include participation from civil society or government (Fransen, 2012). New Media & Society, 12(3), 347364. Napoli, P., & Caplan, R. (2017). These are compounded by the fact that many platforms are data monopolies and black boxes that are difficult to see into (Finck, 2017, p. 20; Marsden, 2018), leaving regulators scrambling to address certain issues or perceived harms that are yet to be properly documented by empirical research.
), Handbook of International Relations (pp. London: ARTICLE 19. (2018). Governing online platforms: From contested to cooperative responsibility. doi:10.1017/S0003055418000679, Marsden, C. (2018).
: Illusions of a borderless world. New forms of governance: Certification regimes as social regulations of the global market. Register to receive personalised research and resources by email. Retrieved from http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-1937_en.htm, European Commission. The Global Network Initiative (GNI) is a multistakeholder standard-setting and accountability body that was launched in 2008 to help tech companies better deal with government requests for content takedowns or user data.
Green Clubs and Voluntary Governance: ISO 14001 and Firms Regulatory Compliance. Search our database for more, Full text search our database of 168,400 titles for. There is ample precedent from other industries: for instance, the Forest Stewardship Council was created in 1993 as a non-profit organisation that brought together various NGOs, firms, academics, and individuals from 60+ countries to create a certification scheme for sustainable timber (Dingwerth & Pattberg, 2009). London: Amnesty International. doi:10.5210/fm.v22i5.7051, Potoski, M., & Prakash, A. The governance of online content on platforms is a far less multistakeholder undertaking than the governance of internet protocols and standards, with far fewer formalised institutions and fora. Stepanovich, A., & Mitnick, D. (2015).
In 2018, a small group of civil society groups and researchers, once again including the EFF, proposed the Santa Clara Principles for Content Moderation (SCPs). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. That said, it remains a useful and intuitive analytical framework, allowing one to visualise trends over time for example, the evolution and significant proliferation of corporate governance schemes over time seen in Figure 2. Towards a better internet for children: Findings and recommendations from EU Kids Online to inform the CEO coalition [Report]. Risky Social Networking Practices Among Underage Users: Lessons for Evidence-Based Policy. Internet Policy Review is an open access and peer-reviewed journal on internet regulation. Join us for the first Yale ISP-WIII Platform Governance Terminologies Panel Discussion. The SCPs differ from the previous two efforts by specifically providing recommendations for firms, rather than governments, and advocate for specific recommendations on how companies should meet basic best practices for appeals, user notice, and transparency in their moderation processes.
Extremist Speech, Compelled Conformity, and Censorship Creep. This article distils from the various (proposals for) platform regulation operational principles that can serve as the basis for productive debate on the subject. doi:10.1017/S0020818300027387. However, it is not always easy to pass such regulation, as industry lobbies heavily to protect its interests, and even once rules are in effect, ensuring compliance especially when firms are headquartered in different jurisdictions is no easy task (Marsden, 2011; Simpson, 2002).