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The Ordoliberal Internet? Continuity and Change in the EU’s approach to the Governance of Cyberspace

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Ben FarrandORCiD

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Abstract

This article considers the role of ideas in shaping law and policy processes, serving to facilitate certain actions or approaches while curtailing others. Using the development of the EU’s governance approach to online service providers and platforms, this article demonstrates how ordoliberalism as a set of beliefs regarding the regulation of market activity through law have shaped the understanding of appropriate measures for combating hybrid threats such as disinformation. Highlighting the origins of the E-Commerce Directive and the influence of ordoliberalism in the application of a regulated self-regulation model, the article explores how ordoliberal philosophical ideas have influenced programme and policy level ideas concerning EU cyberspace governance as it relates to online platform activities. Even where there has been discursive change regarding the role of online platforms in contributing to an environment of insecurity, there has nevertheless been ideational continuity in the approach to their regulation, dictating the legal response in the Digital Services Act.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Farrand B

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: European Law Open

Year: 2023

Volume: 2

Issue: 1

Pages: 106-127

Online publication date: 29/06/2023

Acceptance date: 02/02/2023

Date deposited: 06/02/2023

ISSN (electronic): 2752-6135

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/elo.2023.14

DOI: 10.1017/elo.2023.14

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