This timely book untangles the digital media jurisprudence of supranational courts in Europe with a focus on the CJEU and the ECtHR. It argues that in the face of regulatory tension and uncertainty, courts can have a strong bearing on the applicable rules and standards of digital media.

The Global Handbook of Media Accountability brings together leading scholars to de-Westernize the academic debate on media accountability and discuss different models of media self-regulation and newsroom transparency around the globe. With examination of the status quo of media accountability in 43 countries worldwide, it offers a theoretically informed comparative analysis of accountability regimes of different varieties. As such, it constitutes the first interdisciplinary academic framework comparing structures of media accountability across all continents and creates an invaluable basis for further research and policymaking. It will therefore appeal to scholars and students of media studies and journalism, mass communication, sociology, and political science, as well as policymakers and practitioners.

This volume examines European and national higher-court decisions on social media from the perspective of fundamental rights and judicial dialogue. While the challenges social media poses for public policy and regulation have been widely discussed, the role of courts in this evolving legal area, especially from a fundamental-rights standpoint, has hitherto remained largely underexplored. This volume probes the contribution of national and European judiciaries to the protection of fundamental rights in a social media setting and delves into patterns of dialogue and interaction between domestic courts, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), and between the CJEU and the ECtHR. The book specifically examines the extent and ways in which national and European judges incorporate fundamental rights reasoning in their social media rulings. It also investigates the nature and breadth of the use of European supranational case law in domestic judicial assessment and analyses the engagement of the CJEU and the ECtHR with the other’s case law. In doing so, the book instils jurisprudential dynamics into the study of social media law and regulation, exploring in particular the effects of European constitutionalism on the shaping and enforcement of fundamental rights in a social media context. Written by emerging and established experts in the field, this book will be essential reading for scholars of comparative, European and constitutional law, as well as those with a particular interest in digital technologies and social media.

In many countries, censorship, blocking of internet access and internet content for political purposes are still part of everyday life. Will filtering, blocking, and hacking replace scissors and black ink? This book argues that only a broader understanding of censorship can effectively protect freedom of expression. For centuries, church and state controlled the content available to the public through political, moral and religious censorship. As technology evolved, the legal and political tools were refined, but the classic censorship system continued until the end of the 20th century. However, the myth of total freedom of communication and a law-free space that had been expected with the advent of the internet was soon challenged. The new rulers of the digital world, tech companies, emerged and gained enormous power over free speech and content management. All this happened alongside cautious regulation attempts on the part of various states, either by granting platforms near-total immunity (US) or by setting up new rules that were not fully developed (EU). China has established the Great Firewall and the Golden Shield as a third way. In the book, particular attention is paid to developments since the 2010s, when Internet-related problems began to multiply. The state’s solutions have mostly pointed in one direction: towards greater control of platforms and the content they host. Similarities can be found in the US debates, the Chinese and Russian positions on internet sovereignty, and the new European digital regulations (DSA-DMA). The book addresses them all. This book will be of interest to anyone who wants to understand the complexities of social media’s content regulation and moderation practices. It makes a valuable contribution to the field of freedom of expression and the internet, showing that, with different kinds of censorship, this essentially free form of communication has come – almost by default – under legal regulation and the original freedom may have been lost in too many countries in recent years.

Online content moderation is a well-known phenomenon. However, no consistent pattern exists on how it is done or how it is legally dealt with. This book addresses the complex issue of questionable content removals and account suspensions on social media platforms in the European Union, solving the existing legal ambiguity with a powerful roadmap designed to guide decision-makers in navigating online access rights and moderation issues. The roadmap’s elements are deduced from a technology-neutral comparative case law study of four Member States (Denmark, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands) based on rigorous selection criteria that highlight the most salient distinctions that characterise legal approaches to social media access and moderation. The ‘layers’ of the roadmap focus on such central issues as the following: the legal basis for social media platforms to impose restrictions; platform operators’ right to shape access, including limitations to the platform’s right to exclude users; the validity and enforceability of terms of service; and users’ and platforms’ remedies for breaches of the terms of service, including the procedural obligations in the Digital Services Act. Unlike previous work on the topic, this book does not focus on one field of law but touches upon and combines European law, constitutional and fundamental rights law, competition law, equality law, property law, and contract law, all reflected on and assessed through both a European and a national lens. By addressing these multifaceted legal aspects, it offers a holistic approach to resolving content moderation challenges and demonstrates which problems are most effectively addressed by which fields of law. The book’s roadmap can be used within the European Union to address and/or resolve any access and moderation problems on social media platforms. It will serve as a valuable resource for judges, social media platforms, and dispute resolution bodies, providing practical insights and guidance in navigating this complex landscape and streamlining decision-making processes. It will prove of immeasurable value in fostering a balanced and fair approach to content moderation in the EU that will ensure that all European users have equal opportunities for redress.

The Digital Single Market (DSM) comprised numerous Directives, Regulations, and other instruments aimed at facilitating cross-border digital services, including access to banking, shopping, streaming, and satellite television across European Union borders without restrictions. With one-fifth of service exports stemming from the digital sector, the DSM was vital for the UK, with the EU representing its largest digital services export market. Brexit and the Digital Single Market examines the important historical role of the UK in DSM development, the consequences of Brexit for the UK's digital sector, and future EU and UK policy trajectories. The book illuminates how the UK continues to innovate in the digital sector but also how it is constrained by external factors both at EU and global levels. It considers how EU policy is taking a new direction in its 2020 Digital Strategy programme which leans towards greater protection of European champions and digital sovereignty, a tightening of its data protection regime, and greater regulatory intervention in digital markets. Timely and unprecedented, Brexit and the Digital Single Market is the first volume to comprehensively cover the implications of Brexit on the EU's DSM. This is an essential read for students and academics in political science and law, as well as civil servants, regulators, and policy makers working within the digital sector.

The European Union began in 1957 as a treaty among six nations but today constitutes a supranational polity - one that creates rules that are binding on its 15 member countries and their citizens. This majesterial study confronts some of the most enduring questions posed by the remarkable evolution of the EU: Why does policy-making sometimes migrate from the member states to the European Union? And why has integration proceeded more rapidly in some policy domains than in others? A distinguished team of scholars lead by Wayne Sandholtz and Alec Stone Sweet offers a fresh theory and clear propositions on the development of the EU. Combining broad data and probing case studies, the volume finds solid support for these propositions in a variety of policy domains. The coherent theoretical approach and extensive empirical analyses together constitute a significant challenge to approaches that see the EU as a straightforward product of member-state interests, power, and bargaining. This volume clearly demonstrates that a nascent transnational society and supranational institutions have played decisive roles in constructing the European Union.