LAW 3535 - Media Law

This course will consider socio-legal and critical perspectives on contemporary global developments related to the legal regulation of media, and freedom of speech and expression. Topics to be covered may include theoretical approaches to the legal regulation of freedom of speech and expression; sedition, hate speech, pornography and obscenity; theoretical and global perspectives on platform governance and content regulation on social media platforms; continuities and distinctions between the legal regulation of online speech and speech on older forms of media; law and policy debates around internet shutdowns; law and platform virality; the regulation of end-to-end encrypted platforms; the intersection between the regulation of content on social media and issues related to privacy and surveillance; and the relationship between the regulation of media content and media infrastructures. This course will draw on case studies that relate to governance mechanisms that regulate speech on global platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and WhatsApp.