The Content Governance Dilemma
Edoardo Celeste, Nicola Palladino, Dennis Redeker, Kinfe Yilma · 2023
Abstract Social media content moderation faces a complex normative dilemma. The central question is: Which rules should govern online content? Private norms or democratically voted laws? If more national laws or international standards are simultaneously applicable, which law to choose? How to avoid the risk of having one single approach imperialistically imposed on the others? This dilemma exposes a tension between the risk of normative authoritarianism, imperialism and anomie. A process of ‘constitutionalisation’ of the social media environment seems to be needed. An input to this process is increasingly originating from civil society actors. Over the past few years, a significant number of ‘bills of rights’ have been proposed to articulate constitutional rights for social media. This phenomenon has been described in terms of the emergence of a movement of ‘digital constitutionalism’.