Mangan, David; Gillies, Lorna E. --- "Introduction" [2017] ELECD 866; in Mangan, David; Gillies, E. Lorna (eds), "The Legal Challenges of Social Media" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 1

Book Title: The Legal Challenges of Social Media

Editor(s): Mangan, David; Gillies, E. Lorna

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781785364501

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: Introduction

Author(s): Mangan, David; Gillies, Lorna E.

Number of pages: 10

Abstract/Description:

John Perry Barlow’s 1996 declaration from ‘Cyberspace’ earns frequent mention in discussions relating to the internet. Although it contained the self-assuredness hyperbole permits, this piece was also a demarcation point for an ongoing discussion. With social media, the internet has developed a more complicated human character than one may glean from Barlow’s ‘new home of the Mind’. There are different reasons for this collection. First, the contributors bring the perspective of their own discipline knowledge. And yet, all are connected by the fact they have worked in the print and digital eras (to varying degrees). The ambition here is not only to provide prescient commentary, but also to draw out the tremendous opportunity the present offers to speak to a future while knowing a past. Second, although the internet was initially developed as a research and military tool, the uptake of social media remains a testament to the human nature of our creations; a ‘culture of connectivity’. The referendum on United Kingdom membership in the European Union factors into this collection in differing ways. The result (approximately 52 per cent in favour of leaving the Union) has the potential to further complicate the area as a whole from a regulatory, pragmatic and fundamental rights perspective. Solutions, like plans, are speculated upon but conclusiveness is currently lacking. Given the absence of clarity at present, the contributions herein have either acknowledged the uncertainty that will remain for a period or elected to focus on particular jurisdictions.