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Who Do You Sue? State and Platform Hybrid Power Over Online Speech

Daphne Keller
Tuesday, January 29, 2019, 2:37 PM

This essay closely examines the effect on free-expression rights when platforms such as Facebook or YouTube silence their users’ speech. The first part describes the often messy blend of government and private power behind many content removals, and discusses how the combination undermines users’ rights to challenge state action. The second part explores the legal minefield for users—or potentially, legislators—claiming a right to speak on major platforms.

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This essay closely examines the effect on free-expression rights when platforms such as Facebook or YouTube silence their users’ speech. The first part describes the often messy blend of government and private power behind many content removals, and discusses how the combination undermines users’ rights to challenge state action. The second part explores the legal minefield for users—or potentially, legislators—claiming a right to speak on major platforms. The essay contends that questions of state and private power are deeply intertwined. To understand and protect internet users’ rights, we must understand and engage with both.

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Daphne Keller

Daphne Keller

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Daphne Keller directs the Program on Platform Regulation at Stanford’s Cyber Policy Center. Her work, including academic, policy, and popular press writing, focuses on platform regulation and Internet users' rights in the U.S., EU, and around the world. She was previously Associate General Counsel for Google, where she had responsibility for the company’s web search products. She is a graduate of Yale Law School, Brown University, and Head Start.

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