“Social media has substantially damaged and distorted the flow of information and the free exchange of ideas that are at the heart of why we have free expression,” said Jared Schroeder, an SMU expert in social media and the First Amendment.

So, what are U.S. lawmakers doing to protect people’s privacy and safeguard democracy from hate, violence, and extremism 25 years into the social-media era? Not much, Schroeder explains in a recent commentary in The Hill.

“While undermining the Constitution and sharing false and misleading information is not healthy behavior for democracy, there is little American lawmakers can do to regulate social media firms, however irresponsible the firms are regarding policing their spaces or collecting our information.”

“European Union lawmakers are not waiting around to see what happens next. They are putting the finishing touches on the Digital Markets Act, which will limit how tech giants like Meta use and share people’s data across different services,” Schroeder said.

“Next up for European Union lawmakers is developing legislation that requires social media firms to more proactively police their platforms. On the 25th anniversary of social media, the European Union is laying down the law.”

Jared Schroeder, associate professor of journalism in SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts

214-768-3395, jcschroeder@smu.edu

Books published:

Schroeder, J. (2018) The Press Clause and Digital Technology's Fourth Wave: Media Law and the Symbiotic Web. New York: Routledge.

Schroeder, J. (2018). The Discursive Marketplace: Reimagining the Marketplace Metaphor in the Era of Social Media, Fake News, and Artificial Intelligence, First Amendment Studies.

Schroeder, J. (2017). The Future of Discourse in Online Spaces. In Daxton R. Stewart (Ed.), Social Media and the Law (pp. 255-274). New York: Routledge.