Online Public Shaming, the Duties of Social Media Platforms, and the Case for Regulation

Abstract What should we do in response to the prevalence of wrongful public shaming that occurs online? In this paper, we offer one part of the answer to this question. We argue that there is a compelling case for social media platforms themselves to be active in tackling wrongful online public shaming, as well as for government regulation of these platforms to stimulate such activity. We recognize that we are far from the first authors to call for the regulation of social media platforms. None the less, our arguments and conclusions have two distinguishing features that warrant emphasis. First, whereas others invoke the familiar risks associated with fake news and with hate speech, we focus exclusively on the need for regulation to address wrongful online public shaming. Second, as will become apparent, our analysis assigns special relevance to the social norms that emerge on the Internet, and it highlights the important role that these norms must play in resolving the issues with which we are concerned.