Digital constitutionalism across the Atlantic

Abstract

This article examines the reasons for different constitutional approaches to platform governance across the Atlantic. By adopting a comparative perspective under the lens of digital constitutionalism, it analyses the move from converging to diverging strategies of the United States and the European Union to address platform governance. From a liberal approach inspired by the US framework at the end of the last century, the European Union has moved towards a constitutional democratic strategy as demonstrated, for instance, by the launch of the Digital Services Act. On the other side of the Atlantic, the United States has reacted to the consolidation of platform governance by maintaining a liberal approach based on a vertical paradigm driven by the First Amendment. Given these democratic and liberal approaches, this article explains how the different constitutional premises of the United States and the European Union have produced diverging responses to the power of online platforms, thus underlining different expressions of digital constitutionalism across the Atlantic. The first section of the article introduces the rise of digital constitutionalism as the primary research angle to study the trans-Atlantic approaches to platform governance. The second section compares the European and US responses to the rise of platform powers. The third section focuses on the implications of these different constitutional strategies on a global scale.

Pojęcie i systematyka konstytucjonalizmu cyfrowego

“…W UE dominuje "strategia demokratyczna" dążąca do zachowania równowagi sił i ochrony praw podstawowych w świecie cyfrowym. Inną drogę obrały Stany Zjednoczone, które zareagowały na konsolidację zarządzania platformami, utrzymując liberalne podejście oparte na paradygmacie wertykalnym bazującym na pierwszej poprawce do amerykańskiej konstytucji 28 . Rozwarstwienie pomiędzy rozwojem konstytucjonalizmu cyfrowego, w tym w podejściu do ochrony praw podstawowych i wolności w środowisku cyfrowym, widoczne jest również między krajami rozwiniętymi i rozwijającymi się 29 oraz pomiędzy światem demokratycznym i autorytarnym 30 .…”

La articulación de la soberanía digital en el marco de la Unión Europea

“…En una segunda línea de argumentación, el fundamento de la soberanía digital europea se explica en clave geopolítica por la necesidad de actuar frente a la supremacía tecnológica de China y Estados Unidos (Hobbs, 2020;De Gregorio, 2022a), así como, en un orden distinto, respecto de sus empresas Revista de Derecho Comunitario Europeo, 75, mayo-septiembre (2023), pp. 133-171 (Prokscha, 2021: 19-21).…”

Hypernudging in the changing European regulatory landscape for digital markets

“…The limits of the disclosure have been widely researched (Ben‐Shahar & Schneider, 2014), thereby leading to doubts as to the effectiveness of the provisions. However, transparency serves a greater role in widening the responsibility of private actors that affect users' fundamental rights (De Gregorio, 2022b). It strengthens the observability of socio‐technical systems that can be seamlessly harnessed to exploit user vulnerabilities (Helberger et al, 2022), especially where such rights and duties did not exist before.…”