SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT MODERATION, LAW, AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH
As the major social media platforms have become increasingly central to the lives of people all over the world, the impacts of the material being shared, the interactions these platforms allow, and the data being gathered has had profound impacts for everyone’s social, political, and economic lives. Social media platforms work minute-by-minute to manage the content on their services, but this content moderation has been imperfect and opaque. As a result, governments all over the world have begun to debate and pass laws that both moderate content in online spaces and have often gone further, making platforms liable for the content they host. In democracies, governments must balance efforts to regulate online content with freedom of expression. This Task Force will enter into this emerging area of content moderation and platform liability regulation to create materials that will allow others to understand global patterns and chart a path forward.