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How do we understand online harms? The impact of conceptual divides on regulatory divergence between the Online Safety Act and Digital Services Act

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

The Online Safety Act and Digital Services Act constitute two approaches to the co-regulation of platforms based on an approach based in mitigating harm. In both instances, policy makers have framed these new legislative initiatives as world-leading. However, how ‘harm’ is understood is significantly different in both regimes, with both conceptual and practical effects. This article explores how distinct understandings of harm can serve as a basis for increased regulatory divergence between the UK and EU. While the UK considers harm in a narrow sense of the physical and psychological harms to individuals resulting from specific illegal activities, the EU considers it broadly, conceived as both harm to individuals and harms to society, with a consideration of harm as the result of systems rather than individual behaviours. This difference in understandings results in significantly different approaches to co-regulation, impacting upon the potential for cooperation, sharing of expertise, and cross-border activity.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Farrand B

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Journal of Media Law

Year: 2024

Pages: epub ahead of print

Online publication date: 05/06/2024

Acceptance date: 08/05/2024

Date deposited: 18/05/2024

ISSN (print): 1757-7632

ISSN (electronic): 1757-7640

Publisher: Routledge

URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/17577632.2024.2357463

DOI: 10.1080/17577632.2024.2357463

ePrints DOI: 10.57711/x0dj-e497


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Funding

Funder referenceFunder name
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
EP/W032481/2

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