On Freedom Of Expression On The Internet And Its Regulation

The main research question of this paper is: How to protect individuals’ freedom of speech from the infringement of this fundamental right in the triadic structure of "individual-media-government" ?Specifically,the infringement of freedom of expression can be subdivided into two levels: the first is the indirect regulation by public power through the media;the second is the abuse of dominant social power by the media.Part Ⅰ begins with an analysis of freedom of speech in Internet by clarifying the connotation of fundamental right and the justification for its restriction.The connotation of freedom of speech in Internet is basically the same as in the real environment,with the rights attribute requiring the state to both restrict freedom of speech nor take active actions to protect it,while the political rights attribute reflects the value of protection of the right.The Internet brings a technological value to freedom of speech.Part Ⅱ develops the idea of how the legal guarantees unfold.First,the"media" has changed the way of thinking about freedom of speech,and the information regulation model has changed from the dual structure of"people-government" to the structure of "people-media-government.The Internet brings about the same freedom of speech as other media in essence,but also has certain special characteristics,namely,the huge amount of information carried and the direct operability of the information content,and these special characteristics are one of the entry points for the analysis of freedom of speech on the Internet.Second,the law abandons traditional direct regulation in favor of media-based incidental censorship.Internet platforms are in the position of "gatekeepers" in the regulation of Internet speech,and the law relies on the "gatekeepers" to carry out censorship.Part Ⅲ examines the ways in which the law and the Internet platform protect and regulate Internet information.The law protects the operation of the Internet infrastructure and exempts platforms from indirect liability by the "safe harbor" rule.The law regulates Internet content indirectly by relying on the platform,with German legislation imposing a series of speech censorship responsibilities on Internet platforms and China adopting the "regulation of the Internet by the Internet" rule.Internet platforms regulate information content according to the corresponding legal regulations,which mainly include platform access rules,prior filtering mechanisms,and mechanisms for dealing with published content.Part Ⅳ is the evaluation of the regulatory approach.From the aspect of legal regulation,indirect regulation has the inherent disadvantage of pointing to concealment and does not conform to the principle of legal reservation;secondly,the ambiguity of content review standards may produce chilling effect;thirdly,there are limitations in the concept of information regulation,which may hinder the smooth progress of public debate;finally,there is a dilemma of censorship on Internet platforms.The technical regulation of Internet platforms has the risk of improperly interfering with users’ right.Internet platforms have dominant power over users and belong to the social public power,and should assume the responsibility of protecting basic rights matching the factual power.Part Ⅴ proposes some possible ways of improvement for the defects.Indirect regulation should follow the principles of legal reservation and proportionality;the standard of incidental censorship imposed by the law on the platform should also be rationalized.Regarding the technical regulation of the Internet,it can be left to industry associations under the guidance of the law.