Social Media Companies' Cyberbullying Policies

Authors

  • Tijana Milosevic University of Oslo, Department of Media and Communication, Faculty of Humanities

Keywords:

cyberbullying, social media, online platforms, intermediaries, digital public sphere, digital bullying, freedom of speech, privacy, e-safety, youth and media, children

Abstract

This article examines social media companies’ responsibility in addressing cyberbullying among children. Through an analysis of companies’ bullying policies and mechanisms that they develop to address bullying, I examine the available evidence of the effectiveness of the current self-regulatory system. Relying on the privatization-of-the-digital-public-sphere framework, this article signals concerns regarding transparency and accountability and explains the process through which these policies develop and can influence the perceptions of regulators about what constitutes a safe platform. The article is based on a qualitative analysis of 14 social media companies’ policies and interviews with social media company representatives, representatives of nongovernmental organizations, and e-safety experts from the United States and the European Union.

Author Biography

Tijana Milosevic, University of Oslo, Department of Media and Communication, Faculty of Humanities

I am currently a postdoctoral researcher in children and media at the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Oslo, Norway where I collaborate with Dr. Elisabeth Staksrud and Dr. Sonia Livingstone. I completed my doctoral dissertation in communication at American University in Washington D.C. My PhD dissertation “Cyberbullying Policies of Social Media Companies: Towards Digital Dignity” analyzes cyberbullying initiatives of social media and digital messenger companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Ask.Fm, WhatsApp and Snapchat, among others. I worked under invaluable guidance of Dr. Kathryn Montgomery, Dr. Patricia Aufderheide and Dr. Laura DeNardis. I have also done research on chilling effects of copyright in visual arts community, available here, which is also a paper in New Media & Society journal; media coverage of US involvement in the Middle East; US public diplomacy; and media coverage of climate change. You can find a list of my publications here. I hold an MA in Media and Public Affairs from The George Washington University (GWU). I have a passion for journalism- writing and documentary filmmaking. I graduated from GWU’s Documentary Filmmaking Institute. I worked at BBC, Radio Free Europe and Columbia Missourian. I blog on the Huffington Post. For further information, take a look at my CV here.

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Published

2016-10-13

Issue

Vol. 10 (2016)

Section

Articles

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