To what extent does UK law adequately address the harms that platform/surveillance capitalism cause to individuals and communities with protected characteristics?

Abstract

Online platforms have gained astounding prevalence as a means of spreading discourse, with social media playing a significant role in both high and low-level communication. Social media platforms “allow users to opportunistically interact and selectively self-present… with both broad and narrow audiences”, suggesting that harmful communication is able to reach a multiplicity of people. This essay aims to address the potential harms caused by platform/surveillance capitalism, focussing on TikTok’s algorithmic techniques and the experiences of female TikTok users, before determining whether UK law adequately addresses these harms. The first section of this essay will explain the business model of platform/surveillance capitalism and how the algorithmic techniques used by TikTok are successful in generating user engagement. The second section will address how these techniques can facilitate the online sexual harassment of women and girls as a specific form of gendered harm. It will focus on the sexualisation of content that is not inherently sexual nor intended to be sexually suggestive by the original poster (OP). The final section of this essay will examine the regulatory responses to this form of harm within UK law, however as some responses will be beyond the scope of this essay there will be an analysis of the most relevant legislation as well as suggestions for reform. It will also address the limited regulation of algorithmic techniques used within platform/surveillance capitalism, encouraging robust sanctions for platforms that enable harmful communication.