Social Media Bots: Laws, Regulations, and Platform Policies

Abstract

While social media bots have the ability to greatly affect US national security and public discourse, the current landscape of US federal and state laws regulating such bots is limited. This study explores the challenges inherent to passing social media bot-related legislation and details current efforts to do so, including at the federal and state levels. It briefly explores the context in the European Union as well. This paper then discusses the dilemmas social media companies face as they think about effective bot policies and identifies the four main categories of policies through which the social media platforms regulate the use of bots on their sites. As they face evolving threats from bots, the social media companies will continue to adapt their policies accordingly, though it remains an open question whether and to what extent these companies should regulate themselves in the face of additional pressure from Congress and the public.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2020
Accession Number
AD1112566

Entities

Organizations

  • Center for Naval Analyses

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • California
  • Commerce
  • Congress
  • European Union
  • Freedom Of Speech
  • Governments
  • Information Operations
  • Information Security
  • Internet
  • Law
  • Media
  • National Governments
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Online Communications
  • Public Policy
  • Security
  • Social Media
  • Social Networking Services
  • Social Networks
  • State Law
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • United States

Readers

  • Agent-Based Social Robotics and Mobile-Assisted Learning in Virtual Environments.
  • Government and Public Administration Law.