First Page
809
Abstract
Over the last five years, the federal government has been slow to respond to the growing number of calls for social media regulation. Social media has a massive impact on American life, fostering connections among people and amplifying information. The companies that own and operate these platforms enjoy a power to disseminate information that has been likened to that of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages. Yet, there is no substantive regulation of these companies by the federal government. Instead, state governments are attempting to fill the regulatory void left by the federal government. As seen with gerrymandering, if permitted to alter the essential fabrics of democracy, state governments will take every inch given by the federal government. In this case, instead of altering voting districts, state governments seek to manipulate content moderation laws for political gain. Conservative state governments have passed legislation seeking to disallow self-moderation of content by the platform owners, while liberal state governments are poised to pass legislation mandating content moderation. This threatens to create an unmanageable regulatory framework for the platform owners and, in some states, contribute to growing polarization alongside the spread of disinformation. This Note argues that the solution to regulating social media is express federal preemption of state regulation accompanied by the formation of a politically independent regulatory agency
Recommended Citation
Benjamin Summers-Berger,
Using Express Federal Preemption to Avoid a Costly State-by-State Regulatory Landscape for Social Media Platform,
18 Brook. J. Corp. Fin. & Com. L.
809
(2024).
Available at:
https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/bjcfcl/vol18/iss2/11