‘Digital due process’: a need for online justice

Abstract

Social media platforms have evolved into the ‘modern public square’—with all the legal complexities involved. Public discourse, free speech and global online crime prevention are all at present under extreme pressures, due—ironically—to both significant over-blocking and under-blocking by social media platforms. At the one end of the spectrum, user-generated content is far too often subject to robo-takedowns.1 At the other extreme, clearly criminal activities such as online child sexual abuse run rampant and is not blocked nearly enough throughout the world.2 These two extremes are to a great extent caused by an inadequate and unbalanced content moderation and legal architecture developed by the digital gatekeepers. Moreover, the manner in which the Internet’s so-called ‘attention merchants’ and ‘surveillance capitalists’ abuse personal privacy through the data-harvesting and micro-targeting of individuals who gather in the ‘modern public squares’ is of enormous public concern internationally.3 There is a clear and present need to ensure justice is done within the international digital community as evidenced by the public outcry on these fundamental issues as they play out on the world’s social media platforms. ‘Digital due process’ might form the basis of an online infrastructure to restore fundamental freedoms and support the rule of law in the digital world.