Restricting digital sites of dissent: commercial social media and free expression

ABSTRACT

The widespread use of commercial social media platforms by protesters and activists has enhanced protest mobilisation and reporting but it has placed social media providers in the intermediary role as facilitators of dissent and has thereby created new challenges. Companies like Google and Facebook are increasingly restricting content that is published on or distributed through their platforms; they have been subject to obstruction by governments; and their services have been at the core of large-scale data collection and surveillance. This article analyses and categorises forms of infrastructure-based restrictions on free expression and dissent. It shows how private intermediaries have been incorporated into state-led content policies; how they set their own standards for legitimate online communication and intervene accordingly; and how state-based actions and commercial self-regulation intersect in the specific area of online surveillance. Based on a broad review of cases, it situates the role of social media in the wider trend of the privatisation of communications policy and the complex interplay between state-based regulation and commercial rule-making.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media
• protest
• censorship
• surveillance
• digital rights
• freedom of expression

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on the contributor

Arne Hintz is Senior Lecturer at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University, UK. His research connects communication policy, media activism, citizen media and technological change. Recently he has been Principal Investigator of the collaborative ESRC-funded project Digital Citizenship and Surveillance Society. His publications include the co-edited volume Beyond WikiLeaks: Implications for the Future of Communications, Journalism and Society (Palgrave MacMillan 2013), among others. He is Chair of the Community Communication Section of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University, Bute Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3NB, UK. E-mail: [email protected]