Constitutionalising Social Media

by Edoardo Celeste (Editor), Perry Keller (Editor), Amélie Heldt (Editor), Tanya Aplin (Editor), Clara Iglesias Keller (Editor)

Overview

This book explores to what extent constitutional principles are put under strain in the social media environment, and how constitutional safeguards can be established for the actors and processes that govern this world: in other words, how to constitutionalise social media.

Millions of individuals around the world use social media to exercise a broad range of fundamental rights. However, the governance of online platforms may pose significant threats to our constitutional guarantees. The chapters in this book bring together a multi-disciplinary group of experts from law, political science, and communication studies to examine the challenges of constitutionalising what today can be considered the modern public square.

The book analyses the ways in which online platforms exercise a sovereign authority within their digital realms, and sheds light on the ambiguous relationship between social media platforms and state regulators. The chapters critically examine multiple methods of constitutionalising social media, arguing that the constitutional response to the global challenges generated by social media is necessarily plural and multilevel. All topics are presented in an accessible way, appealing to scholars and students in the fields of law, political science and communication studies.

The book is an essential guide to understanding how to preserve constitutional safeguards in the social media environment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781509953707
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/30/2022
Series:	Hart Studies in Information Law and Regulation
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Edoardo Celeste is Assistant Professor in Law, Technology and Innovation at the School of Law and Government of Dublin City University, Ireland.
Amélie Heldt is Associated Researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Media Research (Hans-Bredow-Institut), Germany.
Clara Iglesias Keller is Researcher at the WZB Berlin Social Science Centre, Germany, and Associate Researcher at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (Berlin), Germany.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
Edoardo Celeste (Dublin City University, Ireland), Amélie Heldt (Leibniz Institute for Media Research, Germany) and Clara Iglesias Keller (WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Germany)

PART 1
SOCIAL MEDIA AS A MODERN PUBLIC SQUARE
2. Social Media and Protest: Contextualising the Affordances of Networked Publics
Tetyana Lokot (Dublin City University, Ireland)
3. The Rise of Social Media in the Middle East and North Africa: A Tool of Resistance or Repression?
Amy Kristin Sanders (University of Texas at Austin, USA)
4. Legal Framings in Networked Public Spheres: The Case of Search and Rescue in the Mediterranean
Veronica Corcodel (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
5. Social Media and the News Industry
Alessio Cornia (Dublin City University, Ireland)

PART 2
FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND PLATFORMS' GOVERNANCE
6. Structural Power as a Critical Element of Social Media Platforms' Private Sovereignty
Luca Belli (FGV Direito Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
7. No Place for Women: Gaps and Challenges in Promoting Equality on Social Media
Mariana Valente (Insper Instituto de Ensino e Pesquisa de São Paulo, Brazil)
8. Social Media, Electoral Campaigns and Regulation of Hybrid Political Communication: Rethinking Communication Rights
Eugenia Siapera and Niamh Kirk (both at University College Dublin, Ireland)
9. Data Protection Law: Constituting an Effective Framework for Social Media?
Moritz Hennemann (Universität Passau, Germany)

PART 3
STATES AND SOCIAL MEDIA REGULATION
10. Regulatory Shift in State Intervention: From Intermediary Liability to Responsibility
Giancarlo Frosio (University of Strasbourg, France)
11. Government–Platform Synergy and its Perils
Niva Elkin-Koren (Tel-Aviv University, Israel)
12. Social Media and State Surveillance in China: The Interplay between Authorities, Businesses and Citizens
Yuner Zhu (City University of Hong Kong)
13. The Perks of Co-Regulation: An Institutional Arrangement for Social Media Regulation?
Clara Iglesias Keller (WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Germany)

PART 4
CONSTITUTIONALISING SOCIAL MEDIA
14. Changing the Normative Order of Social Media from Within: Supervisory Bodies
Wolfgang Schulz (Leibniz-Institute for Media Research, Germany)
15. Content Moderation by Social Media Platforms: The Importance of Judicial Review
Amélie P Heldt (Leibniz-Institute for Media Research, Germany)
16. Digital Constitutionalism: In Search of a Content Governance Standard
Edoardo Celeste (Dublin City University, Ireland), Nicola Palladino (Dublin City University, Ireland), Dennis Redeker (University of Bremen, Germany) and Kinfe Yilma (Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia)