Lawless

Nicolas P. Suzor, Lawless: The Secret Rules that Govern Our Digital Lives (Cambridge University Press, 2019). 

Rampant abuse, hate speech, censorship, bias, and disinformation -- our internet has problems. It is governed by technology companies -- search engines, social media platforms, and infrastructure providers -- whose hidden rules influence what we are allowed to see and say. In Lawless, Nicolas P. Suzor presents gripping examples of exactly how tech companies govern our digital environment and how they bend to pressure from governments and other powerful actors to censor and control the flow of information online. We are at a constitutional moment -- an opportunity to rethink the basic rules of how the internet is governed. Suzor offers a vision of a vibrant, diverse, and flourishing internet that can protect our fundamental rights from the lawless rule of tech. The culmination of more than ten years of original research, this groundbreaking work should be read by anyone who cares about the internet and the future of our shared social spaces. 

-Publisher's Description

Platform Economy

Bram Devolder, The Platform Economy: Unravelling the Legal Status of Online Intermediaries (Intersentia, 2019).

Emerging platforms claim to create new market opportunities and to provide innovative solutions to improve social welfare. Conversely, the platform economy blurs established lines between traditional legal categories, such as business and consumer, personal and professional, and worker and contractor. Traditional regulation, which often focuses on balancing the interests of two contracting parties, is now confronted with the three-sided contractual relationship between a platform, a supplier and a user. 

In this book, a panel of international legal experts unravels the legal status of online intermediaries -- a thorny knot that legislators, judges and lawyers across the globe are facing. 

-Publisher's Description