Internet governance by social media platforms

An emerging area of inquiry in Internet governance scholarship is the role of private information intermediaries in enacting governance via technical design choices and user policies. Following this trajectory, this paper addresses governance by social media rather than governance of social media. Informed by conceptual frameworks from Internet governance and Science and Technology Studies, it examines the extent to which these platforms either promote or constrain rights in three thematic areas: (1) anonymous speech and individual privacy; (2) the ability to express ideas or, stated as a negative liberty, freedom from censorship; and (3) technical affordances of interoperability and permissionless innovation. Because of their unique role as the intermediaries providing citizens with access to the digital public sphere, social media platforms are central points of control on the Internet. Viewing these private platforms through an Internet governance lens, rather than a content lens, suggests that social media technical architectures and policies actually pose several challenges to communication rights as well as to the open Internet. There is an opportunity for Internet governance studies, which have primarily focused on governmental policies and new global institutions, to give greater consideration to the direct policymaking role of private intermediaries and the accompanying phenomenon of the privatization of human rights.