ABSTRACT

This paper takes a unique approach to framing the political obligation social media companies like Twitter and Facebook have in a democratic society by casting the public sphere as a common-pool resource. Over the last decade or so much of our civic discourse has moved to social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. This paper argues that just as citizens have an obligation to one another, social media companies have an obligation to promote agonistic forms of civic, political discourse through their algorithms. This algorithmic obligation that social media companies have must be reconciled with social media companies’ formulation of their fiduciary shareholder obligations. We posit that a commons based view of social media discourse allows these companies to make both a democratic health and fiduciary interest argument.

摘要

本文采用一种独特的方法来将Twitter和Facebook等社交媒体公司在民主社会中承担的政治义务归纳为公共领域作为公共资源。在过去十年左右的时间里，我们的大部分公民讨论都转移到了Facebook和Twitter等社交媒体平台上。本文认为，正如公民有义务相互之间一样，社交媒体公司也有义务通过其算法促进公民，政治话语的激动形式。社交媒体公司所具有的这种算法义务必须与社交媒体公司制定其受托股东义务相一致。我们认为，基于公共资源的社交媒体话语观点使这些公司能够进行民主健康和信托利益论证。