Social Media Regulation: European Approaches to Dangerous Online Content in International Perspective

The 2025 EUCOS Policy Symposium

May 1, 2025

University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Thomson Hall, Room 317

9:00 am – 12:30 pm (some portions for UW students only)

 

Every government in the world is grappling with questions about how and who should regulate social media content. Particularly in democracies, the challenge of balancing freedoms of expression and speech with countering the potential security risks of online content such as extremist content or harmful misinformation has become increasingly pressing. While each social media platform has its own internal content moderation policies, different countries have chosen different paths to deal with this problem. How should governments think about and regulate this content? The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) has come to be seen as a global model for regulating social media content. Speakers will discuss the DSA and contrast this approach with the US’s hands-off approach that is centered on Section 230 and the First Amendment.

 

9:00-10:30 | Panel Discussion: How should governments think about and regulate social media content?  | Open to the public

• John A. Albert is an Associate Researcher at the Institute for Information Law (IViR) where he contributes to the Digital Services Act (DSA) Observatory.
• Nicole H. Buckley is an Associate at K&L Gates’ Seattle office and a member of the Technology Transactions and Sourcing group.
• Jessica L. Beyer (moderator) is an Assistant Teaching Professor and the Lead of the Jackson School’s Cybersecurity Initiative.

 

10:45-12:15 | Student Workshop: Tackling the Question of Social Media Content, Risk, and Regulation | Pre-registered University of Washington students only

Facilitators: John A. Albert, Jessica Beyer

Workshop Description for Students

To register for the workshop, please email Professor Beyer at jlbeyer@uw.edu by 11:59 pm on April 22. Space is limited. University of Washington students only. 

John Albert and Jessica Beyer will lead students who have attended Symposium Event 1 through an applied exercise to use what they have learned from the talk to write a one-page policy brief and present their briefs. This workshop is geared to solidify student learning from the earlier panel discussion and will give students an opportunity to practice key professional skills such processing information about a topic quickly, synthesizing that information, understanding it within broader societal and political contexts, writing short and concise briefs about a topic, and presenting a topic orally.

12:15 – 12:30 | Student Workshop Presentation | UW students and faculty only