Chapter 38: Further Reading — Regulatory Approaches

Foundational Texts on Platform Law

1. Kosseff, J. (2019). The Twenty-Six Words That Created the Internet (Cornell University Press) The authoritative history of Section 230, tracing its origins from the Stratton Oakmont case through decades of interpretation and the current reform debate. Kosseff is a former journalist turned law professor; the book is accessible to non-lawyers while being legally rigorous. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand Section 230 debates beyond the talking points.

2. Wu, T. (2010). The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires (Knopf) Tim Wu's historical analysis of how information industries develop, consolidate, and eventually get regulated or broken up provides crucial context for the current platform governance debate. Wu coined the term "net neutrality" and later served on the National Economic Council. His historical perspective is an important counterweight to the view that the current platform landscape is somehow natural or permanent.

3. Balkin, J.M. (2021). "How to Regulate (and Not Regulate) Social Media." Journal of Free Speech Law, 1(1) One of the most important law review articles on the First Amendment dimensions of platform regulation. Balkin argues that the key distinction is between regulating platforms as speakers (often impermissible under the First Amendment) and regulating platforms as governors (permissible when they exercise quasi-governmental power over users). Essential for understanding the constitutional landscape of US regulation.

4. Hoofnagle, C.J., Van der Sloot, B., & Borgesius, F.Z. (2019). "The European Union General Data Protection Regulation: What It Is and What It Means." Information & Communications Technology Law, 28(1), 65-98. A clear, accessible law review explanation of GDPR's major provisions, aimed at readers who want to understand what GDPR actually requires (not just what it's described as requiring in popular press). Essential grounding for evaluating whether GDPR compliance translates to actual protection.

5. Waldman, A.E. (2020). "Cognitive Biases, Dark Patterns, and the 'Privacy Paradox.'" Current Opinion in Psychology, 31, 105-109. Waldman's analysis of how dark patterns in consent interfaces undermine GDPR's consent requirements. Connects the behavioral science of dark patterns (Part III of this textbook) to the legal framework of privacy regulation, showing why the consent model is vulnerable to manipulation.

On the Digital Services Act

6. European Commission. (2022). Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 — Digital Services Act (Full text) The actual regulation text, freely available at EUR-Lex. Reading the primary document is invaluable for understanding what the DSA actually requires rather than what journalists or advocates say it requires. The recitals (introductory paragraphs explaining the regulation's purposes) are particularly illuminating about the European Commission's theory of harm and regulatory approach.

7. Leerssen, P., Ausloos, J., Zarouali, B., Helberger, N., & de Vreese, C.H. (2019). "Platform Ad Archives: Promises and Pitfalls." Internet Policy Review, 8(4) Research on platform transparency — what platforms have disclosed, what is missing, and what effective transparency requirements would need to include. Provides context for evaluating the DSA's transparency provisions before implementation.

On Children's Online Protection

8. Livingstone, S., & Third, A. (2017). "Children and young people's rights in the digital age: An emerging agenda." New Media & Society, 19(5) Research by one of the leading scholars of children and digital media on what effective children's online rights would require. Livingstone's work grounds the discussion of COPPA and KOSA in empirical research on what actually harms children online and what protections would be effective.

9. Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (PublicAffairs) While broader than children's protection specifically, Zuboff's analysis of "behavioral futures markets" — platforms' model of predicting and influencing behavior by harvesting behavioral data — is essential context for understanding why COPPA-style consent mechanisms are inadequate. The commercial surveillance apparatus that COPPA was supposed to constrain has grown far beyond what the regulation's architects anticipated.

On Algorithmic Accountability

10. Diakopoulos, N. (2019). Automating the News: How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Media (Harvard University Press) Diakopoulos examines algorithmic curation in news contexts specifically, with attention to how transparency and accountability can work in practice. His journalism-focused framework provides practical examples of what algorithmic transparency looks like when implemented thoughtfully.

11. Pasquale, F. (2015). The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money and Information (Harvard University Press) The foundational academic text on algorithmic opacity and the case for algorithmic accountability. Pasquale's analysis of why "black box" algorithms — systems that produce outputs without meaningful explainability — pose democratic and rights-based challenges is essential background for the algorithmic impact assessment debate.

12. Algorithmic Justice League. (2019). Actionable Auditing: Investigating the Impact of Publicly Naming Biased Performance Results of Commercial AI Products Research on how public disclosure of algorithmic bias findings changes platform behavior. Available at ajl.org. Examines the conditions under which voluntary transparency and public pressure produce change compared to mandatory regulation.

Comparative and International Perspectives

13. Bradford, A. (2020). The Brussels Effect: How the European Union Rules the World (Oxford University Press) The definitive analysis of how EU regulation shapes global corporate behavior beyond EU jurisdiction. Essential for understanding why EU platform regulation matters for users everywhere, not just in Europe, and for assessing the relative importance of EU vs. US regulatory approaches.

14. Gorwa, R. (2019). "What is platform governance?" Information, Communication & Society, 22(6), 854-871. A conceptual framework for understanding the range of actors and mechanisms that shape platform behavior: law, regulation, market competition, technical design, and civil society pressure. Gorwa's framework is valuable for seeing regulation as one mechanism in a broader governance ecosystem rather than the only tool available.