Treating Social Media Corporations as Quasi-State Actors to Address the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Content Moderation

Authors

• Michael T. Tiu Jr.

Abstract

Corporations have become powerful actors in the international system. They have the potential to disrupt the protection of values that states have been performing for decades. One of these values–freedom of expression–has been the recipient of impact of emerging technologies owned by corporations. Social media platforms have become new governors of expression. Content moderation rules cause adverse impacts on freedom of expression. The vagueness of certain criteria and the inconsistency of their application have led to censorship of speech which would have been protected offline. This situation is exacerbated by the use of artificial intelligence in content moderation, owing to the tool’s transparency problem. The lack of visibility into and ability to comprehend AI action present a big gap in the governance of speech that hampers any check on the restriction of a critical freedom.

Content moderation rules, particularly the use of artificial intelligence, are not tested against the standards of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as such treaty rules apply to states which are the duty-bearers in international human rights law. The UN Guiding Principles on Business on Human Rights which provides a soft law framework on the corporate responsibility to respect human rights is insufficient in dealing with the adverse impacts because “knowing and showing” how social media corporation address such impacts would not be possible with the opacity of artificial intelligence. Businesses escape testing against standards applicable to states because of their personality, but the impact of their activities might be just as grave as any state action considering the migration of expressive activity to online spaces which are owned by these corporations.

This work proposes the treatment of social media corporations as quasi-state actors to fill this governance gap. This approach analyzes the nature of social media corporations, their role in the expressive landscape, and how they market their business model to end users who they want to keep on their platforms. The conclusion is that these corporations take on more public functions that justify their treatment as quasi-state actors.

Recommended Citation

Michael T. Tiu Jr., Treating Social Media Corporations as Quasi-State Actors to Address the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Content Moderation, 40 Emory Int'l L. Rev. 475 (2026).
Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/eilr/vol40/iss3/1