An Exploratory Study of Global and Local Discourses on Social Media Regulation

Abstract

This is a study of suggested approaches to social media regulation based on an exploratory methodological approach. Its first aim is to provide an overview of the global and local debates and the main arguments and concerns, and second, to systematise this in order to construct taxonomies. Despite its methodological limitations, the study provides new insights into this very relevant global and local policy debate. We found that there are trends in regulatory policymaking towards both innovative and radical approaches but also towards approaches of copying broadcast media regulation to the sphere of social media. In contrast, traditional self- and co-regulatory approaches seem to have been, by and large, abandoned as the preferred regulatory approaches. The study discusses these regulatory approaches as presented in global and selected local, mostly European and US discourses in three analytical groups based on the intensity of suggested regulatory intervention.