Carl Miller: For the past 15 years, platforms have largely relied on voluntary enforcement and protection measures to address online harms. That created a messy equilibrium in which platforms have responded to various kinds of political pressure around the world. With the change of direction at X under Elon Musk’s ownership and the recent announcements by Mark Zuckerberg at Meta, that equilibrium has collapsed.
All the big platforms – TikTok, Facebook, X – have got rid of many of the safeguards they accumulated over those 15 years. Perhaps one reason for this is that the UK and the European Union are moving towards a new, regulated online safety environment that is likely to conflict with the US’s position on tech regulation.
The conversation: Are Europe and the US set for a digital decoupling?
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have made big changes to their social media platforms. Carl Miller and Alex Krasodomski consider the geopolitical implications of a fragmenting online ‘public square’.
