ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jacob van de Kerkhof

Jacob van de Kerkhof is a PhD candidate with the Montaigne Centre at Utrecht University. His research focuses on protection of freedom of expression on social media platforms.

POSTS BY Jacob van de Kerkhof

28 Oktober 2022

Jacob van de Kerkhof, Catalina Goanta

Fakeness in Political Popularity

Politics in a democratic society have long been a glorified popularity contest, which we can all hope the most capable person wins. Hence, politicians have an incentive to artificially boost their online popularity through fakeness – fake comments, fake followers, fake likes. On a fundamental level, a false sense of popularity may affect our election outcomes – so what are the legal limits of fakeness? Continue reading >>

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22 April 2022

Jacob van de Kerkhof

Elon Musk Wants to Buy Twitter to Create a Free Speech Utopia: Now What?

The enigmatic Tesla founder Elon Musk has made a public offer to buy 100% of Twitter’s shares at approximately 138% of each share’s value. In his letter of intention submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk describes that free speech is necessary in a democratic society, and he wishes to unlock its full potential by bringing Twitter under (his) private ownership. Constitutionally this raises an interesting point: if indeed a billionaire wants to change the rules of speech on the ‘new public squares’ by acquiring a social media platform, can he – and should he be able to? Continue reading >>

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