Amid the growing chorus of the influence and dominance of social media companies, the United States has identified six key principles to keep their power in check.
Areas of regulation –
The areas range from competition; privacy; youth mental health; misinformation and disinformation; illegal and abusive conduct, including sexual exploitation; and algorithmic discrimination and lack of transparency.
Why is it significant?
- These principles are in line with global scepticism around the influence of social media platforms as countries around the world, including India, look to check the dominance of these platforms.
- One of the key principles listed by the White House is to remove special protection available to social media platforms under Section 230 of the US’ Communications Decency Act (CDA).
- This section is similar to Section 79 of India’s Information Technology Act, 2000, (IT Act) which classifies social media platforms as intermediaries and broadly shields them from legal action based on content users post on their platform.
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