The UK's Approach to Regulation of Digital Platforms

This chapter provides an overview of three main strands of regulation in the UK that would affect the regulation of digital platforms in general and social media in particular: data protection; competition; and the online harms agenda. In doing so, it considers the extent to which existing powers have been used and the extent to which new regimes have been proposed or are required. All the regimes have a regulator and, despite potential overlap and tensions between regimes, a number of commonalities exist between them, notably the focus on the impact of design choices, and risk-based approaches to the applicability of the regimes. A further similarity is the question of whether the regulators have adequate powers and resources. A final theme is the response, particularly of large companies, to enforcement of regulation.