In Packingham v. North Carolina, the Supreme Court dubbed social media “the modern public square.” Seven out of 10 Americans regularly use platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to connect with one another, share information, find the latest news, and engage with internet-based content. By reducing the cost of communicating, social media has revolutionized the information ecosystem and transformed the internet from passive consumption to an interactive, dynamic experience.
While the growing centrality of social media platforms to modern society creates tremendous opportunities, it also poses significant challenges for policymakers. These challenges are the subject of an ongoing series of essays published by the AEI Digital Governance Working Group, which were the focus of AEI’s Digital Platforms and American Life conference. Over the course of three panels, a variety of experts addressed the implications of digital platforms for the future of American governance.
The first panel, moderated by Yuval Levin, focused on one of the hottest topics in tech policy: the future of content moderation on digital platforms. The Cato Institute’s John Samples kicked off the discussion by highlighting the debate over platform censorship. A member of Facebook’s Oversight Board, Samples explained that there was no evidence of a systematic effort to suppress conservative viewpoints.
There is, he conceded, concern about the appearance of bias, stemming in part from the fact that company employees are largely left of center. That distrust of the platform could create a lack of confidence in public elections, which may provide grounds for some limited regulation, even if, as I have advocated, the First Amendment generally protects platforms’ content moderation practices.
AEI Senior Fellow Christine Rosen noted that discussing the civic obligations of platforms is problematic, as it allows companies to masquerade as quasi-public organizations in ways that disguise their private motives. She also mentioned a recent study showing that most social media users do not enjoy participating in the partisan battles that increasingly dot the social media landscape, but they do enjoy watching them—suggesting the proper metaphor is not the public square, but a modern Colosseum.
Finally, AEI Nonresident Senior Fellow Bret Swanson used several recent examples to show that content moderation decisions are increasingly having real effects on the shape of public discourse, not only by directly silencing certain influential speakers but also, more significantly, by the ripple effect of self-censorship by allies afraid of being canceled.
The second panel, moderated by Adam White, discussed the challenges of regulating in an era of innovative transformation. Author Adam Thierer discussed his essay, which argued that traditional governance mechanisms have failed to keep up with the challenge of technological innovation. He also touted the benefits of “soft law,” or decentralized governance techniques, to fill needed gaps to address policy concerns.
The Lincoln Network’s Zach Graves suggested there are limits to such a multi-stakeholder approach, and he examined some of the reasons why Congress in particular has failed to rise to the challenge of the moment. Graves finds fault in deleterious anti-institutional reforms in the legislature over the past three decades, including greater concentration of power in leadership, a decline in resources and expertise among members and staff, and, in particular, the abolition of the Office of Technology Assessment, which formerly served as a nonpartisan in-house think tank for Congress before its 1995 abolition.
Michigan State University Professor Johannes Bauer rounded out the panel by explaining why governments need to modernize the regulatory schemes that govern when and how policymakers intervene in the tech sector.
The final panel, moderated by Brent Orrell, focused on digital haves and have-nots, discussing the federal government’s initiatives to close the digital divide and bring broadband access to consumers. AEI Nonresident Senior Fellow John Bailey summarized the dizzying array of federal programs subsidizing broadband access, including $65 billion in new funding authorized by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
I discussed my forthcoming essay questioning the effectiveness of one of those programs, which ostensibly seeks to get low-income households online but has never shown the billions that it spends annually has any effect on low-income broadband adoption rates. We also discussed former Federal Communications Commission General Counsel Tom Johnson’s report highlighting the need to change the mechanism by which universal service programs are funded.
The summary above only scratches the surface of the profound and fundamental questions discussed. A recording of the full event can be found here. As noted above, AEI is also publishing a series of essays on these and related topics, which can be found here and will be updated regularly. Many thanks to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which has generously supported this important initiative.
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