Upholding Digital Rights and Media Plurality: Does Self-regulation by Social Media Platforms Contravene Freedom of Expression?

Abstract

This chapter questions whether the big tech giants, such as Facebook and Twitter, are breaching freedom of expression by regulating and blocking content on their platforms. Does this amount to self-regulatory censorship by enforcing their own rules and ‘by-laws’ on their users? Are they right to ban the promotion of self-harm, suicide, bullying and incitement to racial hatred? The Facebook Oversight Board is assessed and the meaning of media plurality is explored as well as re-examining fake news and disinformation on social media platforms. Legislative steps taken by the EU Commission and the UK Government in relation to ‘online harms and safety’ end the discussion, asking whether it is possible to legislate the internet or whether the big social media tech giants should self-regulate content on their platforms?

Appendix 1: The Facebook Oversight Board Members (2021)

• Catalina Botero-Marino, a Colombian attorney who was the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States from 2008 to 2014. Presently Dean of the Universidad de los Andes Faculty of Law.

• Jamal Greene, a Columbia law professor whose scholarship focuses on constitutional rights adjudication and the structure of the legal and constitutional argument. Greene was a law clerk for former U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

• Michael McConnell, a constitutional law professor at Stanford Law School, was a U.S. federal circuit judge appointed by President George W. Bush, once a possible U.S. Supreme Court nominee. McConnell is an expert on religious freedom and is a Supreme Court advocate who has previously represented clients in First Amendment cases.

• Helle Thorning-Schmidt was the first woman prime minister of Denmark. Thorning-Schmidt is a Social Democrat who led a coalition government from 2011 to 2015 and later served as chief executive of the charity organisation, Save the Children International.

• Afia Asantewaa Asare-Kyei, a dual citizen of Ghana and South Africa, is a human rights advocate focusing on women’s rights, media freedom and access to information issues across Africa at the Open Society Initiative for West Africa.

• Evelyn Aswad, a University of Oklahoma law professor, was a senior U.S. State Department lawyer. Aswad specialises in the application of international human rights standards to content moderation issues.

• Endy Bayuni, an Indonesian journalist who twice served as the editor-in-chief of the Jakarta Post, involved with media advocacy organisations.

• Katherine Chen, a former national communications regulator in Taiwan. Chen is a professor in public relations and statistics at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University. Her research focuses on social media, mobile news and privacy.

• Nighat Dad, a Pakistani lawyer and internet activist who runs the Digital Rights Foundation, a non-profit organisation focused on cyber harassment, data protection and free speech online in Pakistan and South Asia.

• Suzanne Nossel, CEO at PEN America, a non-profit organisation. Nossel was previously Chief Operating Officer of Human Rights Watch, an executive director of Amnesty International USA. Nossel has also held roles in the administrations of former U.S. Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

• Tawakkol Karman, a Yemeni human rights activist and journalist who became the first Arab woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for her nonviolent push for change during the Arab Spring.

• Maina Kiai, a Kenyan lawyer and human rights activist who is director of Human Rights Watch’s Global Alliances and Partnerships Program. Kiai also served as the United Nations special rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association from 2011 to 2017.

• Sudhir Krishnaswamy, the vice chancellor of the National Law School of India University, a civil society activist and an expert on constitutional law in India.

• Ronaldo Lemos is a Brazilian academic and lawyer who co-created a national internet rights law in Brazil and co-founded a non-profit focused on technology and policy issues. Lemos teaches law at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.

• Julie Owono, a lawyer and the executive director of Internet Sans Frontières, a digital rights organisation based in France. Owono campaigns against internet censorship in Africa and around the world.

• Emi Palmor, a former director-general of the Israeli Ministry of Justice who led initiatives to address racial discrimination and advance access to justice via digital services and platforms.

• Alan Rusbridger, a British journalist who was the editor-in-chief of the Guardian newspaper. Rusbridger is principal of Lady Margaret Hall, an Oxford College.

• Andras Sajo, a Hungarian legal academic and former judge at the European Court of Human Rights. Sajo is an expert in comparative constitutionalism and was involved in the drafting of the Ukrainian, Georgian and South African constitutions.

• John Samples is a vice president at the Cato Institute, a U.S. libertarian think tank. Samples advocates against restrictions on online expression and writes on social media and speech regulation.

• Nicolas Suzor, an associate law professor at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia who studies the governance of social networks and the regulation of automated systems

• For current members see: https://www.oversightboard.com/meet-the-board/