S. Free Expression and Social Media

Social media platforms host, curate, amplify, and suppress vast amounts of user content around the world. This seminar explores the issues these practices raise for free expression and other important legal and social values. Topics will include First Amendment defenses to government regulation of platforms; the import of the status of platforms as non-state actors; constitutional and statutory doctrines around intermediary liability; the international human rights law regime as applied to content moderation; specific issues around regulation of hate speech, misinformation, and harassment; and efforts at industry self-regulation including Facebook’s Oversight Board