Kristen Cuetos
The rise of Big Tech has led to concern over social media companies’ power in regulating user content. Social media users are claiming, more frequently now than ever, that their posts, ideas, and views are being censored by social media platforms. Contrarily, other users are arguing that platforms aren’t doing enough to moderate and curb harmful or offensive speech online. Many have filed lawsuits against social media companies for infringing on users’ First Amendment freedom of speech. These lawsuits fail because of the legal barriers that protect social media companies from such liability. As a result, controversy has spurred over the need to either revise existing legal mechanisms or devise completely new ones for the regulation of a platform’s ability to moderate its users. This essay considers the current attempts at proposed legislation and argues how they fall short of feasible solutions.