Regulating terrorist content on tech platforms: A proposed framework based on social regulation

Abstract

Scholars have been arguing for years that responses to terrorist content on tech platforms have, to-date, been inadequate. Past responses have been reactive and fragmented with tech platforms self-regulating. Over the last few years, many governments began to decide that the self-regulatory approach was not working. As a result, a number of regulatory frameworks have been proposed and/or implemented. However, they have been highly criticised. The purpose of this thesis is to propose a new regulatory framework to counter terrorist content on tech platforms and overcome many of these criticisms. Scholars have argued that it is vital that future regulation be informed by past experience and supported by evidence from prior research. Therefore, a number of steps were taken. First, this thesis examines a review of literature into what platforms are exploited by terrorist organisations. Next, a content analysis was undertaken on blogposts that tech platforms publish in order to investigate the efforts that tech platforms report making to counter terrorist content on their services and the challenges that they face. Third, a sample of existing or currently proposed regulatory frameworks were examined in order to learn what was done well and what gaps, limitations and challenges exist that require addressing in future regulation. Finally, social regulation theory was identified as applicable in this regulatory context. Social regulation strategies were examined in three other regulatory contexts in order to examine whether they could be used in this regulatory context. The findings from the above analyses were used to inform a new regulatory framework that is proposed in this thesis. In addition to proposing a new regulatory framework, this thesis also identified three compliance issues that tech platforms may face. These compliance issues are addressed alongside the proposal of the framework. Overall, it is argued that previous regulatory attempts failed to consider the diverse array of challenges that are faced by different platforms when countering terrorist content. The regulatory framework proposed in this thesis researched these challenges and identified strategies from a social regulation approach, learning lessons from how they were applied elsewhere to overcome some of the key criticisms and limitations of existing regulatory practice.

Countering online terrorist content: A social regulation approach

“…These recommendations are not exhaustive and are limited by the word count of the paper. The recommendations are meant as a starting off point in the discussion of what can be learned and applied from a social regulation approach in the context of countering online terrorist content (see Watkin [2021] for a more in-depth discussion of social regulation and the following recommendations).…”

“…14 It is not recommended for broader types of hate or extremist content that can more easily fall into a 'grey area'. Overall, this requires further research and discussion on its useability in this field (see Watkin, 2021).…”

“…This relates to transparency reports, as well as information regarding relevant policies and content removal decisions. See Watkin (2021Watkin ( , 2023a as to how platforms who lack expertise, capacity and willingness (in the areas of transparency reports, creating policies etc.) can benefit from tailored regulatory tracks.…”

“…3 This chapter of Watkin's (2021) PhD thesis analysed the mission statements and official company blog posts of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, Microsoft, Gab and Telegram (Watkin, 2021). 4 It is important to remember that tech platforms are for-profit organisations and will always have competing commercial interests.…”

“…The research into social regulation within environmental protection highlighting the different regulatory challenges that can be faced across the industry, combined with research into responsive regulation which categorises companies based on different regulatory challenges, led to Watkin (2023a) examining the regulatory challenges faced by tech platforms countering terrorist content. The results published in Watkin (2021Watkin ( , 2023a and concluded that companies in the tech industry can be categorised based on the different regulatory challenges they face, and tailored regulatory responses should be proposed to boost their capacity to comply with regulatory requirements. Further to this, the precautionary principle can be utilised as justification for some of the regulatory requirements in these tailored responses.…”