How To Educate Social Media

I bring posted my latest article, Fixing Social Media's Grand Bargain, on SSRN. This newspaper volition look inwards a Hoover Institution series in addition to too on Lawfare.

Here is the abstract:

To regulate social media inwards the twenty-first century, nosotros should focus on its political economy: the nature of digital capitalism in addition to how nosotros pay for the digital world sphere nosotros have. Our digital world sphere is premised on a grand bargain: gratis communications services inwards central for pervasive information collection in addition to analysis. This allows companies to sell access to destination users to the companies’ advertisers in addition to other businesses.

The political economic scheme of digital capitalism creates perverse incentives for social media companies. It encourages companies to surveil, addict, in addition to manipulate their destination users in addition to to strike deals amongst tertiary parties who volition farther manipulate them.

Treating social media companies every bit world forums or world utilities is non the proper cure. It may genuinely brand things worse. Even so, social media companies, whether they similar it or not, bring world obligations. They play of import roles inwards organizing in addition to curating world intelligence in addition to they bring moral in addition to professional person responsibilities both to their destination users in addition to to the full general public.

H5N1 reinvigorated contest constabulary is 1 of import means of dealing amongst the problems of social media. But this seek too emphasizes a minute approach: novel fiduciary obligations that protect end-user privacy in addition to counteract social media companies’ bad incentives.