Platform Liability for Platform Manipulation 

Abstract

Platform manipulation is a growing phenomenon affecting millions of internet users worldwide. Malicious actors leverage the features of online platforms to deceive users, secure financial gain, inflict material harms, and erode trust in democracy. Although social media law offers a safe harbor for the content policies of social media companies, no state or federal law clearly ascribes liability to platforms complicit in deception by their design. Existing frameworks fail to accommodate for the unique role design choices play in enabling, amplifying, and monitoring platform manipulation. As a result, platform manipulation continues to grow with few meaningful legal avenues available to victims. This Note responds to this challenge by introducing a new paradigm of corporate liability for social media platforms that facilitate platform manipulation. This Note extends common law tort liability theory to social media companies and argues that this liability paradigm is well-suited to address technology law's systemic discounting of platform design. Specifically, it argues that existing social media law, First Amendment law, and consumer law frameworks fail to account for the unique content-agnostic enmeshment between platforms and those who manipulate platforms to abuse users. A Platform Design Negligence paradigm is crucial to clarify the bounds of accountability for the design choices of social media companies that facilitate unchecked platform manipulation. Moreover, it offers a constitutive baseline for a society with less rampant technology-enabled deception.

Keywords: social media, technology, scams, platform economy