CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2021
| Author | Holloway, Margaret |
|---|---|
| Title | A Crisis of Liberalism: Misinformation Regulation on Social Media and the Future of Digital Freedom of Expression |
| Summary | The task of regulating online speech is a contemporary and future governance challenge for both public and private actors. The digital public sphere is a relatively recent phenomenon and is constantly and quickly evolving; as a result, questions of regulation are difficult to thoughtfully answer, and the actions of social media companies in regulating content easily seem reactionary rather than grounded in guiding political theories of expression. This thesis aims to answer the following question: how does a liberal theory of freedom of expression apply to the world of digital speech? It begins with an overview of John Stuart Mill’s theory of freedom of expression and of the liberal political goals of maintaining a plural, open society and preserving individual autonomy and independence from authority. The first chapter also includes a doctrinal analysis of the liberal harm principle and its theoretical issues. The second chapter presents the practical issue of regulating misinformation on social media. It explores the political dimension of misinformation and evaluates Facebook’s content regulation policy and practices against traditional liberal standards, particularly the harm principle. Ultimately, the author argues that the various approaches already taken to tackle misinformation on social media do not fall in line with traditional liberal theory, and that the future of a liberal culture online will require increased focus on protecting individual data privacy, de-prioritizing commercial interests, and building truly pluralistic public platforms that encourage critical thinking. |
| Supervisor | Sajo, Andras |
| Department | Legal Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2021/holloway_margaret.pdf |
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