1) Social Media Content Moderation & Facebook’s Whistleblower

Social media companies are taking the blame for dangerous, illegal and otherwise objectionable content online, and governments across the globe are stepping in to regulate. Facebook, the largest social media company, was at the center of stories all year long. While its Oversight Board, Trump ban and pandemic policies were all newsworthy, the “Facebook Whistleblower”, Frances Haugen, blew up to an unprecedented scale. She took thousands of company documents, fronted a global media and lobbying campaign excoriating Facebook, and spoke for hours in front of fawning panels in the US Senate, UK Parliament and European Parliament calling for regulation. Don’t expect a US Digital Regulator anytime soon, but in Europe, major regulation was on track well before she arrived. The UK will likely enact the Online Safety Bill in 2022 regulating a wide range of online content, and the EU’s Digital Services Act, also likely in 2022, may prove the most consequential content moderation regulation of all. Central Asia, Russia, Turkey, India, China and Africa were not on Haugen’s global tour, but all saw governments blaming social media for online ills and mandating interventions. They seem easy to charge with censorship, but defining misinformation raises similar concerns everywhere. Free speech advocates are pointing out that when Western governments regulate online speech it empowers repressive regimes.