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The Story
The strongest legal objection is that social-media companies are not traditional common carriers: they actively select, organize, recommend, and remove content rather than merely transmit communications. On this view, forcing them to host or carry political speech would interfere with editorial discretion and likely create constitutional and regulatory problems. Regulation may still be justified, but more targeted tools are preferable to full utility treatment.
- Platforms’ active content preferences distinguish them from communications carriers whose traditional role is indifference to the content transmitted.
- Compelled hosting or limits on content moderation can burden platforms’ First Amendment rights as speakers or editors.
- Calling platforms common carriers does not itself resolve the constitutional issue; classification, regulatory duties, and editorial discretion must be analyzed separately.
Deeper Insight
The alternative case treats dominant platforms as political infrastructure whose private control can translate economic power into control over democratic participation. Neutrality obligations, public-utility concepts, or broader antimonopoly rules could protect viewpoint diversity and equal political opportunity. This position does not require treating every recommendation as neutral: hosting access, amplification, transparency, and algorithmic governance can be regulated differently.
- Massively influential platforms can leverage economic power into political power by excluding or demoting material central to public debate.
- Facebook and Google can be understood as democratic utilities because their algorithmic infrastructure structures access to information and public discourse.
- A viewpoint-neutral hosting duty could be constitutionally plausible under analogies to telephone companies, package delivery services, and other compelled-access precedents.
Sources · 11
Featured · Analysis · papers.ssrn.com
Treating Social Media Platforms Like Common Carriers?
Treating Social Media Platforms Like Common Carriers? by Eugene Volokh :: SSRN Skip to main content ** ** PDF iconDownload This Paper Open PDF in Browser **Add Paper to My Library Share: * ** * ** * ** * ** Permalink Using these links will ensure access to this page indefinitely Copy URL # Treating
Read sourceAnalysis · brookings.edu
Utilities for democracy: Why and how the algorithmic infrastructure of Facebook and Google must be regulated | Brookings
Utilities for democracy: Why and how the algorithmic infrastructure of Facebook and Google must be regulated | Brookings # Utilities for democracy: Why and how the algorithmic infrastructure of Facebook and Google must be regulated Josh Simons and Josh Simons Graduate Fellow - Edmond J. Safra Center
Read sourceAnalysis · knightcolumbia.org
From Private Bads to Public Goods: Adapting Public Utility Regulation for Informational Infrastructure | Knight First Amendment Institute
From Private Bads to Public Goods: Adapting Public Utility Regulation for Informational Infrastructure | Knight First Amendment Institute Gary Zamchick # From Private Bads to Public Goods: Adapting Public Utility Regulation for Informational Infrastructure Dismantling surveillance-based business mod
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