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EddyBrandtFirstEssay 4 - 04 Dec 2017 - Main.EddyBrandt
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| | | One response to the mayhem - the one that platform giants advocate - is to allow the companies to self-regulate. There are arguments for at least some level of self-regulation; Professor Urs Gasser of Harvard University contends that platforms not only have the incentives to clean up their act, but reservoirs of data, and the capacity to combine those incentives and resources into effective action. And to this point, Facebook is responding: the company has embarked on a public relations campaign amidst public outcry over the 2016 election, and has implemented different features for combating the spread of false information. But the status quo of loose regulation and widespread legal immunity has already fostered damaging outcomes for many, and with a rapidly shifting news cycle that threatens to leave these failures in the past, there is little reason to believe that society can rest solely on these assurances.
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< | As Gasser points out, total deference is insufficient on its own; gap-filling self-regulations with an eye toward transparency will be needed where self-regulation falls flat. Across the Atlantic, some have begun to heed the call of proaction and show a willingness to encroach upon the immunity of platform giants: a new German law purporting to fine social networks large sums for failing to remove hate speech posted by users went recently into effect, and Prime Minister Theresa May has stated that Britain is examining the role of Google and Facebook, and the publisher/platform distinction that has so far served to immunize both from much liability. And now, even in the United States, legislative measures that would have up until recently gone without a sliver of support from online platforms garner approval from the same. | >
> | As Gasser points out, total deference is insufficient on its own; gap-filling regulation with an eye toward transparency will be needed where self-regulation falls flat. Across the Atlantic, some have begun to heed the call of proaction and show a willingness to encroach upon the immunity of platform giants: a new German law purporting to fine social networks large sums for failing to remove hate speech posted by users went recently into effect, and Prime Minister Theresa May has stated that Britain is examining the role of Google and Facebook, and the publisher/platform distinction that has so far served to immunize both from much liability. And now, even in the United States, legislative measures that would have up until recently gone without a sliver of support from online platforms garner approval from the same. | | |
The regime of immunity has, in some relevant sense, failed. Society's response, still in the making, is unclear. But one thing is certain: without public discourse on the topic of legal liability for online platforms, it becomes much more difficult to imagine a serious change to the status quo that has facilitated a structural blow to the American political institution, and spurred several horrors in the developing world, right before our eyes. |
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