Making social media an instrument of democracy

In recent years, the responsibility of social media platforms towards their users and society at large has become a major political issue. However, the regulatory responses to the crisis of social media are still mostly considered unsatisfactory, as demonstrated by the widespread criticism of the Ge...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European law journal : review of European law in context Vol. 25; no. 2; pp. 169 - 181
Main Author: Wischmeyer, Thomas
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.03.2019
Subjects:
Broadcasting
Constitutional law
Criticism
Democracy
Democratization
Discourse
Enforcement
Function
International business enterprises
Mass media effects
Regulation
Social function
Social media
Social networks
Transformation
GREAT BRITAIN
Germany
ISSN:1468-0386, 1351-5993, 1468-0386
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In recent years, the responsibility of social media platforms towards their users and society at large has become a major political issue. However, the regulatory responses to the crisis of social media are still mostly considered unsatisfactory, as demonstrated by the widespread criticism of the German Network Enforcement Act of 2017. This article compares the current constitutional discourse on social media regulation with the debates that accompanied the last major transformation of the media landscape: the rise of broadcasting. While we certainly do not find a roadmap for social media regulation in the past, the key concept of the broadcasting discourse-the idea of media as a sphere of 'institutional freedom'-can be applied to the challenges of today and can be used to strengthen the democratic function of social media.
Bibliography:European Law Journal, Vol. 25, No. 2, Apr 2019, 169-181
Informit, Melbourne (Vic)
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
ISSN:1468-0386
1351-5993
1468-0386
DOI:10.1111/eulj.12312