ABSTRACT
Social media has transformed communication by enabling global connectivity, instant sharing of information, and expression on the web. It also poses tremendous challenges, including disinformation, hate speech, online harassment, and privacy intrusion. Social media regulation must walk a thin line between protecting free speech and avoiding online harms, and protecting basic rights and constraining risks originating from ungoverned virtual spaces.
This study examines critically the legislation and rules of social media in legal regimes like India, the United States of America, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. What role constitutional rights, intermediary liability law, content moderation policy, and data protection policy play in shaping digital governance is what this study focuses on. The study then turns to landmark court rulings, i.e., Shreya Singhal v. Union of India and Reno v. ACLU, to talk about how free speech is conceived when it comes to internet safety in the courts.
Besides, the article contrasts the effectiveness of existing self-regulation, state regulation, and new legislations such as the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (India), the Online Safety Act (UK), and the Digital Services Act (EU). The study further uncovers increasing application of artificial intelligence (AI) in content moderation, the morality of censorship, and the effects of overreach in regulation on democratic discourse.
Incorporating comparative regulation study worldwide, the study scrutinizes key gaps, enforcement challenges, and policy problems in order to derive a legal framework to secure a safe, inclusive, and democratic internet space. The study puts forth aptly suited recommendations that ensure safeguarding of free speech, defense against injury to the users, and promotion of responsibility on the part of social media corporations in the rapidly evolving online world.
Keywords: Free Speech, Regulation of Social Media, Online Harms, Content Moderation, Intermediary Liability, Data Protection, Hate Speech, Misinformation, Digital Governance.
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL MEDIA REGULATION (USA, EU, INDIA)
With the unbridled expansion of social media sites going on, governments across the globe have been under pressure to develop regulatory frameworks that protect free speech but prevent internet evils such as hate speech, disinformation, cyberbullying, and abuse of privacy information. While some governments support laissez-faire government intervention and self-regulation of platforms, others have draconian legal obligations for digital intermediaries. The US, EU, and Indian regulatory styles are supported by different models of social media regulation, depending on its law tradition, constitutional foundation, and policy inclinations.