Governing Babel: The Debate over Social Media Platforms and Free Speech--and What Comes Next

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John P. Wihbey

Governing Babel

The Debate over Social Media Platforms and Free Speech--and What Comes Next

John P. Wihbey

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Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

MIT Press
18 November 2025

Society & culture: general

Why social media platforms have a responsibility to look after their platforms, how they can achieve the transparency needed, and what they should do when harms arise.

Why social media platforms have a responsibility to look after their platforms, how they can achieve the transparency needed, and what they should do when harms arise.

The large, corporate global platforms networking the world's publics now host most of the world's information and communication. Much has been written about social media platforms, and many have argued for platform accountability, responsibility, and transparency. But relatively few works have tried to place platform dynamics and challenges in the context of history, especially with an eye toward sensibly regulating these communications technologies.

In Governing Babel, John Wihbey articulates a point of view in the ongoing, high-stakes debate over social media platforms and free speech about how these companies ought to manage their tremendous power.

Wihbey takes readers on a journey into the high-pressure and controversial world of social media content moderation, looking at issues through relevant cultural, legal, historical, and global lenses. The book addresses a vast challenge-how to create new rules to deal with the ills of our communications and media systems-but the central argument it develops is relatively simple. The idea is that those who create and manage systems for communications hosting user-generated content have both a responsibility to look after their platforms and have a duty to respond to problems. They must, in effect, adopt a central response principle that allows their platforms to take reasonable action when potential harms present themselves. And finally, they should be judged, and subject to sanction, according to the good faith and persistence of their efforts.

By: John P. Wihbey
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 369g
ISBN: 9780262049917
ISBN 10: 0262049910
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 18 November 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

John P. Wihbey is Associate Professor of Media Innovation at Northeastern University, where he cofounded the Institute for Information, Internet & Democracy and directs the AI-Media Strategies Lab. He is the author of The Social Fact (MIT Press) and has served as a research consultant to social media companies, foundations, and government.