Taking Global Administrative Law One Step Ahead: Online Giants and the Digital Democratic Sphere

Abstract

Today, societal speech activities are increasingly conducted online. Therefore, free speech concerns focus on the digital sphere. Major online service platforms operate speech moderation practices constraining digital speech. These platforms are run by a few multinational corporations — the so-called online giants. Online giants, in fact, control the backbone of democracies, on a global scale. Against this backdrop, this article stresses a potential legal path for appropriately regulating digital speech, while preserving the free and thriving global digital culture. The argument introduced is that the online giants should to a certain extent emulate global organizations, and since they control an essential public utility, they should operate under basic administrative law norms that include accountability, transparency, giving reason, and objective review. For this end, the article inspects the Global Administrative Law movement and proposes to extend its overarching conceptualization of global public procedural principles facilitating “good governance” to the online giants’ procedures, despite their private ownership.

Keywords: Global Administrative Law, Digital Governance, Digital Freedom of Speech, Online Content Moderation,

JEL Classification: K12, K21, K30, K33