From Contract Law to Online Speech Governance

Abstract

For years, contract law has been a hidden protagonist in the in the discourse on platform governance. he sound of this silence is especially salient against the backdrop of recent European case law that uses the contractual toolbox to infuse social media terms of service with fundamental rights, in particular the freedom of expression. In this way, contract law has produced – somewhat counterintuitively – one of the most telling responses to the key constitutional issue of social media: how to reconcile freedom of expression as a public value with the private nature of social media platforms.

Keywords

• Big Tech, Consumer Protection, Consumer Protection Law, Contract Law, horizontal effect, Informality, Platform Regulation, Platforms, Radical Reforms, Social Media