La libertà di espressione in rete fra content moderation dei social network e regolazione dell’Unione Europea

Abstract

Starting from the premise that digital society and advances in technology determine the need for adaptation, even if only in an interpretative sense, of the legal categories of constitutionalism, the study analyzes the new dimension of the freedom of expression of thought in the "digital environment". Through the examination of the different jurisprudential approaches expressed to protect this freedom in Europe and in the United States, the work also examines the role of social platforms, their power of self-regulation and that of content moderation, which will highlight the need for regulation of the phenomenon that balances the needs of protection of rights and those of technological advancement, which, with its rapid progress, shows its intolerance for disciplines that are excessively rigid and unable to support it. The Digital Service Act regulation recently approved definitively by the Council provides a new legal framework for digital services based on procedural rules aimed, on the one hand, at strengthening the accountability mechanisms of "very large platforms", and on the other guaranteeing the continuation of their self-regulating power.