The first days of 2021 were characterized by very serious episodes that “struck the latest and perhaps most savage blow to America's reputation as a paragon of liberal democracy” according to David Smith on The Guardian [1].

The riot at the United States Capitol [2,3,4] has driven the public debate about justice on Online Social Network (OSN), after President Trump was subjected to ban by the major OSNs [5] (and, even indirectly, by other social media apps being taken offline, such as Parler [6]).

Social media Directives [7,8] explained and justified their decision with the danger of a potential escalation of violence, since Trump’s communications seemed to “contribute rather than diminish the risk of ongoing violence” [9]. Many journalists and experts [10,11,12] agreed with this resolution, maintaining that labelling posts and tweets is simply an inadequate solution to fight misinformation about the US election [13], especially considering the huge number of insults that former US President Trump posted on social media [14], and they argued that the terms of use of social media platforms are clear enough about violent speech [15]. Some journalists pointed out that rules normally applied to common people were being enforced for one of the most powerful individuals in the world [16,17]. Moreover, the same journalists highlighted the hypocrisy of some of their colleagues who are usually silent when real censoring acts are inflicted on users, for example to Middle Eastern bloggers or activists [18].

However, the de-activation of Donald Trump’s OSN accounts reignited the not-novel discussion about control and “super-power” of modern social media platforms. Indeed, fake news and disinformation are issues that have been amplified by the democratization of information, by the massive use of OSNs, by the information overload, and by the presence of bots and echo chambers [19]. One of the key reasons that these issues are so difficult to untangle is that “social media is fundamentally different from traditional media” (in terms of bandwidth, oversight, and availability) and “so traditional approaches to regulation have largely fallen short” [20]. 

These issues are mainly due to the possibility to remain anonymous on OSNs. In the “real” world, actions have different consequences with respect to digital life, and real life often has some form of self-regulatory system (a person who often lies, would soon be seen as unreliable). Thus, some experts in the ethics field [21] advocated to lever individual responsibility for each action and opinion. This would be possible with the help of online social networks themselves, who are not necessarily acting as a “bad guy” who tries to break the rules. Some argue that it also seems “not completely fair that OSNs should be the only entities in charge of supervising users’ content, and the only entities who have the responsibility to establish whether certain content is illegal”. An independent authority could help, taking part in these disputes; thus, “outsourcing of legal decisions might be a solution” [21]. Nevertheless, OSNs are owned by private companies and this allows them to autonomously decide whether to publish a content or not. Yet, it does not remove the responsibility or the role of the company itself in society. Recently, some steps have been made by private companies to enforce control and integrity of published content [22]. 

Susan Ness, an American attorney and former commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, states that “Platform regulation should focus on transparency, not content” [23]. And, then, she continues arguing that “it is possible to tackle hate speech and disinformation without trampling on free expression, if the U.S. and Europe work together: by mandating transparency — with accountability — instead of regulating content. Require social media companies to provide greater transparency of their content moderation rules and procedures, including how their algorithms influence what users see, and enforce these disclosures through robust oversight. [...] Internet platforms are a black box. Mandating transparency would increase public pressure on platforms to improve users’ online experience. Researchers and regulators would gain access to essential information, resulting in better rules and oversight based on evidence, not assumptions. And online companies would be prodded to examine problems like algorithmic bias that they might prefer to ignore”.

She is, of course, not the only one to advocate for “robust reforms in a slate of technology regulation areas including privacy, market competition, and algorithmic transparency” [20], and even involved companies have started a process in this direction, acknowledging the “need for more perspective and accountability” [24]. 

The tension between accountability and the freedom of expression and information clearly represents a dilemma. However, it is relevant to underline that law must usually balance between opposing rights. It appears needed for governments to face this topic, and including public opinion in the debate can be a path to follow, starting from here.

Written by: Francesca Pratesi

[1] David Smith (7 January 2021). ‘America shaken after pro-Trump mob storms US Capitol building’, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/06/trump-mob-capitol-clash-police-washington (Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[2] Tony Romm and Josh Dawsey (10 January 2021). ‘Trump scrambles to find new social network after Twitter ban, as White House prepares to blast big tech’, The Washington Post. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/09/trump-twitter-banned-apps/ (Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[3] Jessica Guynn (8 January 2021). ‘President Trump permanently banned from Twitter over risk he could incite violence’, USA Today. Available at: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/01/08/twitter-permanently-bans-president-trump/6603578002/ (Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[4] Jordan Fenster (9 January 2021). ‘Q&A: How can Twitter ban Trump's account?’, The Connecticut Post. Available at: https://www.ctpost.com/news/slideshow/Q-A-How-can-Twitter-ban-Trump-215406.php
(Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[5] Anthony Cuthbertson (14 January 2021). ‘Trump ban: Every app, website and company to take action against the US president and his fans’, The Independent. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/trump-twitter-ban-facebook-b1785378.html (Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[6] Joe Tidy (12 January). ‘Silencing Trump: How 'big tech' is taking Trumpism offline’, BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55624630 (Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[7] Mark Zuckember (7 January 2021). Available at: https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10112681480907401 (Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[8] Twitter Inc. (8 January 2021) ‘Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump’, The Twitter Blog. Available at: https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/suspension.html (Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[9] Guy Rosen (6 January 2021). Available at: https://twitter.com/guyro/status/1346950532372393985 (Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[10] Christian Rocca (12 January 2021). ‘Lo strapotere digitale. Sospendere Trump non è censura, ma difesa della libertà di espressione’ (in Italian), Linkiesta. Available at: https://www.linkiesta.it/2021/01/trump-twitter-facebook-censura/ (Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[11] Alex Stamos (6 January 2021). Available at: https://twitter.com/alexstamos/status/1346932573235077121 (Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[12] Casey Newton (6 January 2021). ‘It's time to deplatform Trump’, The Verge and Platformer. Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/6/22217894/deplatform-trump-twitter-ban-facebook-youtube-congress-capitol-riots and https://www.platformer.news/p/its-time-to-deplatform-trump (Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[13]  Brian Fun (8 December 2020). ‘Social media bet on labels to combat election misinformation. Trump proved it's not enough’, CNN Business. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/08/tech/facebook-twitter-election-labels-trump/index.html (Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[14] Kevin Quealy (19 January 2021). ‘The Complete List of Trump’s Twitter Insults (2015-2021)’, The New York Times. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/19/upshot/trump-complete-insult-list.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur# (Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[15] Carlo Blengino (18 January 2021). ‘Il paradosso dei social – Parte I’ (in Italian), Il Post. Available at: https://www.ilpost.it/carloblengino/2021/01/18/il-paradosso-dei-social-parte-i/ (Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[16] Arianna Ciccone (15 January 2021). ‘Trump, la libertà di espressione e l’ipocrisia di giornalisti e politici’ (in Italian), Valigia blu. Available at: https://www.valigiablu.it/trump-social-media-regole-ban/ (Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[17] Arianna Ciccone (9 January 2021). ‘“Deplatforming” Trump: la giusta decisione di Facebook e Twitter di bloccare gli account del presidente uscente’ (in Italian), Valigia blu. Available at: https://www.valigiablu.it/deplatforming-trump-facebook-twitter/ (Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[18] Arianna Ciccone (13 January 2021). ‘Trump, il ban dei social e l'ipocrisia di giornalisti e politici. L'intervista di Selvaggia Lucarelli su Radio Capital.’ (in Italian), Podcast. Available at: https://anchor.fm/valigiablu/episodes/Trump--i-social-media-e-lipocrisia-di-giornalisti-e-politici--Lintervista-di-Selvaggia-Lucarelli-su-Radio-Capital-ad-Arianna-Ciccone-eou3k4 (Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[19] Filippo Menczer and Thomas Hills (1 December 2020). ‘Information Overload Helps Fake News Spread, and Social Media Knows It’, Scientific American. Available at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/information-overload-helps-fake-news-spread-and-social-media-knows-it/ (Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[20] Dipayan Ghosh (14 January 2021). ‘Are We Entering a New Era of Social Media Regulation?’, Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2021/01/are-we-entering-a-new-era-of-social-media-regulation (Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[21] ESME 2019: The PRO-RES workshop about Ethics, Social Mining, and Explainable artificial intelligence, https://kdd.isti.cnr.it/esme2019/
[22] Alon Halevy, Cristian Canton Ferrer, Hao Ma, Umut Ozertem, Patrick Pantel, Marzieh Saeidi, Fabrizio Silvestri, Ves Stoyanov. Preserving Integrity in Online Social Networks, arXiv:2009.10311v3 [cs.SI] (September 25, 2020)
[23]  Susan Ness (2 December 2020). ‘Platform Regulation Should Focus on Transparency, Not Content’,  Slate. Available at: https://slate.com/technology/2020/12/platform-regulation-european-commission-transparency.amp (Accessed: 27 January 2021)
[24] Jeff Jarvis (21 January 2021). ‘The Case of Trump v. Facebook’, Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/whither-news/the-case-of-trump-v-facebook-1d82cc7dc193 (Accessed: 27 January 2021)