‘Twitter’s banning of Donald Trump points to larger issues related to an absent state’ in the regulation of tech companies, expert says

EVANSTON, Ill. – The storming of the Capitol by President Trump’s supporters was fomented on social media platforms, calling into sharper focus the need for dialogue about the regulation of tech companies by authorities in the U.S and worldwide. Professor and researcher Pablo J. Boczkowski is a global expert on digital environments and society and can speak to media on the topic of regulation in the U.S. and other countries in English or Spanish.

Pablo J. Boczkowski is Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University, founder and director of the Center for Latinx Digital Media in the School of Communication, and co-founder and co-director of the Center for the Study of Media and Society in Argentina. He is the author of three books and two new forthcoming books, including “The Digital Environment: How We Live, Learn, Work, Play and Socialize Now” (with Eugenia Mitchelstein, in production, MIT Press). His recent piece in Infobae with Mitchelstein draws from ideas in the book. Media interested in interviewing him should contact Erin Karter at erin.karter@northwestern.edu.

Quote from Professor Boczkowski

“What happened with Twitter’s banning of Donald Trump points to larger issues related to an absent state, which delegates to the private sector part of its responsibility to regulate a good that has become increasingly essential for the quality of life in contemporary society.

“If democratic states de facto delegate regulation of communication to tech companies and do not intervene effectively in defense of citizenship, we will continue to be at the mercy of companies deciding not only about the information to which we have access in the platforms and search engines, but on the kind of digital oxygen that we breathe to thrive in the digital environment of the 21st century.”