Platform neutrality: enhancing freedom of expression in spheres of private power
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Frank Pasquale
Abstract
Troubling patterns of suppressed speech have emerged on the corporate internet. A large platform may marginalize (or entirely block) potential connections between audiences and speakers. Consumer protection concerns arise, for platforms may be marketing themselves as open, comprehensive, and unbiased, when they are in fact closed, partial, and self-serving. Responding to protests, the accused platform either asserts a right to craft the information environment it desires, or abjures responsibility, claiming to merely reflect the desires and preferences of its user base. Such responses betray an opportunistic commercialism at odds with the platforms’ touted social missions. Large platforms should be developing (and holding themselves to) more ambitious standards for promoting expression online, rather than warring against privacy, competition, and consumer protection laws. These regulations enable a more vibrant public sphere. They also defuse the twin specters of monopolization and total surveillance, which are grave threats to freedom of expression.
© 2016 by Theoretical Inquiries in Law
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Theoretical Inquiries in Law
- Research Article
- Introduction
- Research Article
- The regulatory state in the information age
- Research Article
- The policy battle over information and digital policy regulation: a canadian perspective
- Research Article
- Technological tattletales and constitutional black holes: communications intermediaries and constitutional constraints
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- Platform neutrality: enhancing freedom of expression in spheres of private power
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- Taking notice seriously: information delivery and consumer contract formation
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- Thoughts on techno-social engineering of humans and the freedom to be off (or free from such engineering)
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- Freedom to tinker
- Research Article
- Technological neutrality: recalibrating copyright in the information age
- Research Article
- Intellectual property, antitrust, and the rule of law: between private power and state power
- Research Article
- Compounding errors: why heightened regulation and taxation are bad antidotes for recessions and income inequality
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Theoretical Inquiries in Law
- Research Article
- Introduction
- Research Article
- The regulatory state in the information age
- Research Article
- The policy battle over information and digital policy regulation: a canadian perspective
- Research Article
- Technological tattletales and constitutional black holes: communications intermediaries and constitutional constraints
- Research Article
- Platform neutrality: enhancing freedom of expression in spheres of private power
- Research Article
- Taking notice seriously: information delivery and consumer contract formation
- Research Article
- Thoughts on techno-social engineering of humans and the freedom to be off (or free from such engineering)
- Research Article
- Freedom to tinker
- Research Article
- Technological neutrality: recalibrating copyright in the information age
- Research Article
- Intellectual property, antitrust, and the rule of law: between private power and state power
- Research Article
- Compounding errors: why heightened regulation and taxation are bad antidotes for recessions and income inequality
