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Social Media Content Moderation Final Paper
Assignment
For the paper on special topics, you will be expected to take and defend a position on one of the policy issues we discuss in class.
Your papers should be no more than 10 pages, double-spaced, no longer than 2,500 words. You should submit them by email by close of business on the due date, in a format that allows me to comment on them electronically, and so not in PDF.
No AI or Plagrism!!!
Course Outline
This course examines contemporary policy issues in the governance of content moderation by social media companies. The course starts with an overview of the traditional justifications for a regime of free expression: its role in leading to progress in science and the search for truth, the requirement of free information flows for effective and legitimate political governance, including democratic self-governance, and its necessity as a fundamental element of individual identity, autonomy, and dignity. We will also review some of the critiques of free speech as an abstract value. Moving from theory to practice, we’ll then examine how governments regulate social media companies in the U.S., Europe, and China, focusing on how they embody different assessments of the balance between free expression and other values. The second major part of the course concerns special issues in contemporary content moderation regulation including transparency requirements, kids’ online safety, liability and dispute resolution, TikTok and national security, jawboning and political pluralism in social media.
Required References
Mark MacCarthy, Regulating Digital Industries, Brookings Press, 2023
Nigel Warburton, Free Speech: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2009
Anu Bradford, Digital Empires, Oxford University Press, 2023
Margaret E. Roberts, Censored: Distraction and Diversion inside China’s Great Firewall, Princeton University Press, 2018
Restricting TikTok (Part II): Legislative Proposals and Considerations for Congress, CRS, March 15, 2024, https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/LSB/LSB10942 Focus on the description of H.R. 7521, which passed the House on March 13, 2024, on pp. 1-2 and the first amendment discussion on pp. 3-4.
TikTok: Recent Data Privacy and National Security Concerns, Congressional Research Service, March 29, 2023, https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN12131 Describes the risk that data on US citizens would be turned over to the Chinese government and that China would influence the content on TikTok.
Cecilia Kang, David McCabe and Sapna Maheshwari, TikTok Hearing Before House Energy and Commerce Committee, Lawmakers Appear Unconvinced by TikTok Chief’s Testimony, New York Times, March 24, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/03/23/technology/tiktok-hearing-congress
Matt Perault and Samm Sacks, Project Texas: The Details of TikTok’s Plan to Remain Operational in the United States, Lawfare Blog, January 26, 2023, https://www.lawfareblog.com/project-texas-details-tiktoks-plan-remain-operational-united-states This lays out the security conditions TikTok has been discussing with CFIUS
Matt Perault, What Happened to TikTok’s Project Texas? Lawfare, March 20, 2024, https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/what-happened-to-tiktok-s-project-texas TikTok developed a plan to address U.S. government national security concerns, but it was dismissed without serious consideration. Why?
Dr. Milton L Mueller and Dr Karim Farhat, TikTok and US national security,
Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Public Policy, Internet Governance Project, January 8, 2023,
https://www.internetgovernance.org/wp-content/uploads/TikTok-and-US-national-security-3.pdf Read just the executive summary.
Megan McArdle, There’s no need to ban TikTok or make ByteDance divest, Washington Post, November 15, 2023,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/15/tiktok-ban-bytedance-divest-mccarthy-americans/
Washington’s barefaced theft of TikTok: China Daily editorial, March 16, 2023, https://enapp.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202303/16/AP64130052a3103705a5f41e4b.html
Hu Xijin, Regarding US TikTok plunder, ByteDance must not back down, Global Times, March 10, 2024, https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202403/1308565.shtml Thids comment notes that ByteDance’s equity structure has long been completely internationalized, with roughly 60 percent owned by global institutional investors, 20 percent owned by the company’s founders, and 20 percent owned by its employees — including over 7,000 Americans. The new push to free TikTok from foreign control is just “plunder.”
Eleanor Olcott, China hits out at US push to ban TikTok as Steven Mnuchin plots bid, FT, March 14, 2024, https://www.ft.com/content/b0b949cd-d1d3-40f5-8a52-beaf3b29badc China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said US had shown a “robber’s logic” towards TikTok. “When you see other people’s good things, you must find ways to own them,” Wang said.
Elizabeth Dwoskin and Drew Harwell, Mnuchin’s plan to buy TikTok has some insiders bewildered, Washington Post, March 30, 2024
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/03/30/tiktok-mnuchin-sale-algorithm/ He wants to buy TikTok without the algorithm to get around Chinese government objections, but he’s in an awkward position. He first proposed a mandated divestment as Treasury Secretary. Imagine “if the highest-ranking minister in China ordered Apple or Tesla to sell the entirety of their operations to a Chinese consortium, and then eventually this minister ended up leading the consortium in the sale.”
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