A Legal-Dogmatic View on Freedom of Expression in Social Networks

The freedom of the press and the right to free speech also apply in the digital sphere. Every citizen with Internet access has the ability to easily share and receive information and opinions with a global audience. The hope is that unfiltered free expression and diversity of opinion will lead to more democratic and pluralistic societies. This utopia, however, fails due to humans’ limited information processing capacity. No one is able to take note of all or even a fraction of the opinions and information presented on the Internet, process them and use them as a basis for their own opinions and actions. As a result, the Internet has been “platformized”. Platforms bring together various user groups and frequently create a closed ecosystem of various services and information for them. The purpose of this paper is to provide answers on questions, among other, what lies behind social networks function as information intermediaries and what rights social media users have against the deletion of their posts.