Back from the dead (again): The specter of the Fairness Doctrine and its lesson for social media regulation

In the United States, debates about political bias in the content curation and moderation practices of social media platforms have spilled over into the policy realm, rekindling conversations about the Fairness Doctrine and its potential utility in possible regulatory approaches to social media. This article revisits the history of the Fairness Doctrine and uses this history as a lens for critically examining current proposals for integrating Fairness Doctrine-like principles into a regulatory framework for social media. In addressing this topic, the first section of this article provides a brief overview of the history of the Fairness Doctrine and how the Doctrine has informed (and misinformed) subsequent media policy debates in the years since its elimination. The second section describes how the Fairness Doctrine is being brought to bear in the contemporary debates around social media regulation. The third section offers a critical analysis of the applicability of the Fairness Doctrine to the social media context.

Duke Scholars

Author Philip Michael Napoli Sanford School of Public Policy