Is a global regulation for the internet viable?

Is a global regulation for the internet viable?

Mark Zuckerberg's call for a 'harmonized' regulation opened the debate

  How can large online platforms deal with misinformation and abusive content while remaining true to freedom of expression. That is the great dilemma facing not only the leaders of social networks, but also governments and authorities.

The call of the founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, last weekend, in which he requested by means of a letter a "globally harmonized" regulation of the internet opened the debate again and raised questions about what the path should be follow.

  In his letter, Zuckerberg called for a "more active role" of governments in regulation and urged more countries to adopt rules to protect security such as those of the European Union.

A global regulation will ensure that the Internet is not broken, that entrepreneurs can create products that serve the whole world

Without a truce, a chain of events has had the social network in the eye of the hurricane: from hate speech on the platform and the recent live transmission of attacks on two mosques in New Zealand to the use of the network to interfere in elections from abroad and questions about their collection of private user data.

Open data: a way for smarter cities
Are Twitter accounts to issue official communications?
Is it viable to regulate social networks? We should do it?
Although the online giants have long resisted government intervention, Zuckerberg now said that "a global common framework," rather than a country-by-country regulation, "will ensure that the Internet is not fractured, that entrepreneurs can create products that serve the whole world, and that all have the same protection ".

However, for some international specialists, with this proposal Facebook wants to avoid being the final arbiter that decides what it allows or withdraws. "What they expect is moderate reforms that do not affect their business model or jeopardize their advertising profits," Darrell West, director of the Brookings Institution's Center for Technology Innovation, told AFP.

For his part, Adam Chiara, professor of communication at the University of Hartford, believes that the regulations could end up helping giants like Facebook, which has the resources to comply with them. "Other smaller companies may not have the means to adhere to strict regulation," he said.

But how could a global system then work? Internet regulations vary considerably, and there are large differences in how users' information is collected and used. The European rules are, for the time being, the strictest.

Lee McKnight, professor of information at Syracuse University, points out that some activists have been claiming for more than 10 years a global convention that establishes rules on online content.to. "These platforms transcend the countries, so it is logical to treat them globally," McKnight estimated, although he warned that this could be a long process of a decade. In addition, he added, it will be a challenge to harmonize the rules while allowing Facebook and other companies to use "targeted" advertising.

Nuala O'Connor, president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said a good start may be a law on Internet privacy in the US. UU., Which has been, until now, a marginal player in the conversation around the laws of protection of information, and should enter the game, "he said.