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Digital constitutionalism across the Atlantic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2022

Giovanni De Gregorio Open the ORCID record for Giovanni De Gregorio [Opens in a new window]
Giovanni De Gregorio*
Affiliation:
Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford, Manor Road Building, Manor Road, Oxford, OX1 3UQ, United Kingdom
*
Email: giovanni.degregorio@csls.ox.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article examines the reasons for different constitutional approaches to platform governance across the Atlantic. By adopting a comparative perspective under the lens of digital constitutionalism, it analyses the move from converging to diverging strategies of the United States and the European Union to address platform governance. From a liberal approach inspired by the US framework at the end of the last century, the European Union has moved towards a constitutional democratic strategy as demonstrated, for instance, by the launch of the Digital Services Act. On the other side of the Atlantic, the United States has reacted to the consolidation of platform governance by maintaining a liberal approach based on a vertical paradigm driven by the First Amendment. Given these democratic and liberal approaches, this article explains how the different constitutional premises of the United States and the European Union have produced diverging responses to the power of online platforms, thus underlining different expressions of digital constitutionalism across the Atlantic. The first section of the article introduces the rise of digital constitutionalism as the primary research angle to study the trans-Atlantic approaches to platform governance. The second section compares the European and US responses to the rise of platform powers. The third section focuses on the implications of these different constitutional strategies on a global scale.

Keywords

digital constitutionalismEuropean lawUS lawconstitutional lawplatform governancecomparative law
Type
Research Article
Information
Global Constitutionalism , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , July 2022 , pp. 297 - 324
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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153 Treaty on the European Union (2012) OJ 326/13, preamble 2, 4.

154 Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship (28 May 2020) <https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-preventing-online-censorship>.

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167 See, e.g., M. Feeney, ‘Are Social Media Companies Common Carriers?’ Cato, 24 May 2021; Eric Goldman, ‘Are Social Media Services “State Actors” or “Common Carriers”?’ Technology & Marketing Law Blog, 12 February 2021.

168 Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy (9 July 2021), available at <https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/07/09/executive-order-on-promoting-competition-in-the-american-economy>.

169 EU–US Trade and Technology Council Inaugural Joint Statement (29 September 2021), available at <https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/STATEMENT_21_4951>.

170 Luciano Floridi, ‘The Fight for Digital Sovereignty: What It Is, and Why It Matters, Especially for the EU’ (2020) 33 Philosophy & Technology 369.

171 Niva Elkin-Koren and Eldar Haber, ‘Governance by Proxy: Cyber Challenges to Civil Liberties’ (2016) 82 Brookings Law Review 105; Michael D. Birnhack and Niva Elkin-Koren, ‘The Invisible Handshake: The Re-emergence of the State in the Digital Environment’ (2003) 8 Virginia Journal of Law & Technology 6.

172 Lyon, David, Surveillance After Snowden (Polity Press, Cambridge, 2015)Google Scholar.

173 Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the European Democracy Action Plan COM(2020) 790 final.

174 Bradford, Anu, The Brussels Effect: How the European Union Rules the World (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2020)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Scott, Joanne, ‘Extraterritoriality and Territorial Extension in EU Law’ (2018) 62 American Journal of Comparative Law 87 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

175 Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, ‘Shaping Europe’s digital future’ COM (2020) 67 final, 2.

176 Ibid.

177 Ibid.

178 Ibid.

179 Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council Laying Down Harmonised Rules on Artificial Intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Act) and Amending Certain Union Legislative Acts COM(2021) 206 final.

180 Greenleaf, Graham, ‘Global Data Privacy Laws 2019: 132 National Laws & Many Bills’ (2019) 157 Privacy Laws & Business International Report 14 Google Scholar.

181 Address of the UN Secretary-General to the Italian Senate (18 Dec. 2019), available at: < https://www.un.org/press/en/2019/sgsm19916.doc.htm >.

182 Oreste Pollicino, ‘Contact Tracing and COVID-19: Commission and Member States Agree on Specifications’, EU Law Live (16 Jun 2020), available at: <https://eulawlive.com/contact-tracing-and-covid-19-commission-and-member-states-agree-on-specifications>.

183 GDPR (n 16), Article 3(2).

184 Moerel, Lokke, ‘The Long Arm of EU Data Protection Law: Does the Data Protection Directive Apply to Processing of Personal Data of EU Citizens by Websites Worldwide?’ (2011) 1(1) International Data Privacy Law 28 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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187 Kuner, Christoper, ‘Extraterritoriality and Regulation of International Data Transfers in EU Data Protection Law’ (2015) 5(4) International Data Privacy Law 235 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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190 Case C-507/17, Google Inc. v Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (CNIL) (2019).

191 Case C-18/18, Eva Glawischnig-Piesczek v Facebook (2019).