This is the regime of private censorship and this is already in place. Our country has what is called “notice and take down system” in which individual letters published or circulated in media or unacceptable content is simply taken down without informing

The debate over social media playing the censor is not new. Often, the debate stems from a superficial understanding of social media, which is the offshoot of an information technology breakthrough. Most forms of information and communication technologies are dual use, which can be used to protect human rights and empower citizens. But they can also be used to undermine human rights and democracy. The last five years has seen an inversion of the initial trend.

During the early days of the internet, everybody was convinced that the internet would have only positive consequences. Now, we have a reality to check and see a lot of its negative effects.

Social media companies have always had community standards for terms of use and were more limited than the constitutionally protected right to free speech. So even if our country allowed us, for instance, to engage in harassing behaviour and there was no law against that, some social media companies made that unacceptable on their platforms. What we need to see now is the second generation of tightening of those norms because it is very clear that some actors of social media are taking it too far.

The most important thing to realise is that this is the regime of private censorship and this regime is already in place. In some countries this is better configured. Our country has what is called “notice and take down system” whereas in a country like Canada, it is “notice and notice system”. In notice and take down system, individual letters, published or circulated in media or unacceptable