26 March 2026
Towards a Legal Concept of Digital Well-Being
The European Commission's preliminary finding on TikTok’s addictive design from last month might be a game-changer for protecting users’ digital well-being under EU law. The Commission’s focus moves beyond illegal content on the platform to the design of the platform itself. For the DSA to make this enforceable, “digital well-being” needs to be operationalised in a way that regulators and platforms can actually measure and mitigate. This blog post begins with the Commission's findings to advance the first steps toward a theory of digital well-being within the EU platform regulation framework. Continue reading >>
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23 March 2026
Another Click in the Wall
The Australian social media ban for children under 16 set in motion a regulatory trend across Europe. Turkey is next in line: On 4 March, a draft law imposing a social media ban on children under 15 and restrictions on children aged 15 and older was introduced in the Grand National Assembly. Although the Turkish approach offers a more nuanced model by introducing a two-tiered system, it appears that some of the central flaws of the current trend are not overcome: it ignores the potential adverse effects of excluding children from the modern public squares. Continue reading >>
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11 March 2026
Private Power, Public Values
It is not every day that a major AI company invokes constitutional values against the US government. Anthropic – the US-American AI company behind Claude – declined the US military’s request for unrestricted access to its AI tools, citing worries about domestic mass surveillance and the use of its technology in fully autonomous weapons. Recognising digital corporations as potential drivers of constitutional rights runs counter to the most recent literature on digital regulation and digital sovereignty. But perceiving them as such remains crucial. Continue reading >>
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07 March 2024
The Digital Services Act as a Global Transparency Regime
On both sides of the Atlantic, policymakers are struggling to reign in the power of large online platforms and technology companies. Transparency obligations have emerged as a key policy tool that may support or enable achieving this goal. The core argument of this blog is that the Digital Services Act (DSA) creates, at least in part, a global transparency regime. This has implications for transatlantic dialogues and cooperation on matters concerning platform governance. Continue reading >>
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19 February 2024
From the DMCA to the DSA
On 17 February 2024, the Digital Services Act (DSA) became fully applicable in Europe. The DSA's new approach fundamentally reshapes the regulation and liability of platforms in Europe, and promises to have a significant impact in other jurisdictions, like the US, where there are persistent calls for legislative interventions to reign in the power of Big Tech. This symposium brings together a group of renowned European and American scholars to carry an academic transatlantic dialogue on the potential benefits and risks of the EU’s new approach. Continue reading >>
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13 November 2023
A Primer on the UK Online Safety Act
The Online Safety Act (OSA) has now become law, marking a significant milestone in platform regulation in the United Kingdom. The OSA introduces fresh obligations for technology firms to address illegal online content and activities, covering child sexual exploitation, fraud, and terrorism, adding the UK to the array of jurisdictions that have recently introduced new online safety and platform accountability regulations. However, the OSA is notably short on specifics. In this post, we dissect key aspects of the OSA structure and draw comparisons with similar legislation, including the EU Digital Services Act (DSA). Continue reading >>
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06 September 2023
Europe’s Digital Constitution
In the United States, European reforms of the digital economy are often met with criticism. Repeatedely, eminent American voices called for an end to Europe’s “techno-nationalism.” However, this common argument focusing on digital protectionism is plausible, yet overly simplistic. Instead, this blog post argues that European digital regulations reflect a host of values that are consistent with the broader European economic and political project. The EU’s digital agenda reflects its manifest commitment to fundamental rights, democracy, fairness, and redistribution, as well as its respect for the rule of law. These normative commitments, and the laws implementing those commitments, can be viewed in aggregate as Europe’s digital constitution. Continue reading >>
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03 July 2023
A Constitution without Constitutionalism
“Digital constitutionalism” has attracted a good deal of scholarly attention in recent years, much of it enthusiastic, some more sceptical. Just what constitutionalism means, and how this meaning can be transposed into a realm of private ― albeit increasingly regulated ― interactions rather than traditional public law, is part of the debate between the enthusiasts and the sceptics. All agree, however, that it is a normatively charged idea, a shorthand reference to certain values which include ― whether or not they are limited to ― respect for certain human rights. In this post, I argue that while we can indeed think of internet regulation in constitutional terms, we must first understand what I shall call the constitution of cyberspace. A descriptive effort must precede any normative projects directed at imposing values allegedly inherent in the notion of constitutionalism onto cyberspace. And further, understanding the constitution of cyberspace should at least make us wary of digital constitutionalism’s normative ambitions. Continue reading >>
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08 June 2023
YouTube Updates its Policy on Election Misinformation
Last Friday, YouTube announced that it ‘will stop removing content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in the 2020 and other past US Presidential elections’. This development has upsides and downsides, a few of which are worth sketching out, and all of which further accentuate why the US constitutional framework regarding online platform regulation requires updating. The nature of this update requires transcending a governance approach of overreliance on expecting good faith self-regulation by companies providing these intermediaries. Continue reading >>24 May 2023
Monetising Harmful Content on Social Media
The possibility to profit from the dissemination of harmful content triggering views, engagement, and ultimately monetisation does not only concern the contractual relationship between social media and influencers, but also affects how other users enjoy digital spaces. The monetisation of harmful content by influencers should be a trigger, first, to expand the role of consumer law as a form of content regulation fostering transparency and, second, to propose a new regulatory approach to mitigate the imbalance of powers between influencers and users in social media spaces. Continue reading >>
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