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Liberal Democracy, Law and the Citizen Speaker: Regulating Online Speech

Liberal Democracy, Law and the Citizen Speaker: Regulating Online Speech

Author: Ian Cram
Publisher: Hart Publishing
ISBN: 9781509945863

Published In: February 2024
Format: Paperback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only
Hardback Edition ISBN: 9781509945825

List Price: AU$114.37

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Description
Contents

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This book delivers an original, theoretically informed analysis of the legal regulation of online speech. Rejecting the narrow pluralism of elitist and deliberative accounts of the citizen's role in political discourse, the book defends a participatory account of speech in non-deliberative settings. The latter account of political pluralism best captures the republican democratic aspiration for popular, on-going authorship of the laws and the centrality of freedom to dissent in democratic theory. The legal and policy implications for governments and social media platforms of this inclusive envisioning of public discourse are then elaborated upon.

In the digital world, anyone with access to the internet can be a speaker. Speech on public platforms has become democratised. At the same time, aspects of online speech are plainly problematic. Concerns exist about disinformation, 'fake news', 'deep fakes', 'weaponised speech' and 'trolls'. Offensive speech and the polarising effects of robustly expressed political opinion are also troublesome. These assorted downsides of democratised speech are said to undermine the integrity of democratic processes and institutions. Public debate is distorted and coarsened and the electorate are misled. How ought the liberal democratic state respond to these challenges?

The discussion is intended to be read by academics and researchers with interests in democratic theory, digital communications and freedom of expression. It offers a stimulating and distinctive contribution to debates about online speech.

1. Damaging Democracy? – 'Fake News' and Moral Panics

2. Closing Off the Agon: Legal Norms, Deliberative Democracy and 'Improved' European Public Discourse

3. Enlightenment Rationality vs Machiavellian Pluralism

4. Populism and Ochlophobia – the Denouncements of Popular Participation in Liberal Democracy

5. Popular Participation and Political Dissent in Post-revolutionary America – a Case Study of the Democratic Republicans

6. Official and Corporate Gatekeeping of Online Expression with Especial Reference to False Statements on Public Affairs

7. Restoring the Agon: Re-opening the Channels of Political Change

Bibliography

Index