Name: Pooja Casula
Title: The Manipulation of Free Speech: An Exploration of How Online Platforms Engage 'Free Speech' to Silence Free Speech
Date: 10:00 AM ET - 12:30 PM ET, April 11th, 2025
Location: IMAC/Skiles 349
Meeting Link: https://gatech.zoom.us/j/99428878125?pwd=bopMc1n4zu1lALuQcv6JG9pGKy29YR.1
Committee Chair:
Dr. Richmond Wong
School of Literature, Media, and Communication
Georgia Institute of Technology
Committee:
Dr. André Brock
School of Literature, Media, and Communication
Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Carol Colatrella
School of Literature, Media, and Communication
Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Anne Sullivan
School of the Arts, Media, Performance, and Design
York University
Dr. Dhanaraj Thakur
Center for Democracy & Technology
Abstract:
In this dissertation, I explore how underlying interpretations of ‘free speech’ in platform moderation practices may broadly shape user perspectives of social media public discourse. I aim to understand what content social media users perceive should be ‘free’, how their perspectives of ‘free speech’ shape their patterns of engagement on the platform, and how introducing an alternative interpretation of ‘free speech’ underlying platform practices may affect their perspective of engaging in public political discourse online. Specifically, I examine these questions through the experiential lens of young adult Gen Z women.
Through this work, I find that social media platforms engage the pervasive US-interpretation of 'free speech' to justify the implementation of moderation policies that excuse toxic behaviors. The continued existence of toxic behaviors online negatively affects how young adult Gen Z women engage in these public discourse spaces, deterring them from publicly engaging and leading them to self-censor. I raise the question, should platforms be employing the US-interpretation of free speech? If our online spaces of discourse, which do not need to be beholden to the US-interpretation of free speech, cannot provide us the space to freely express our opinions, what might we do? How might we challenge the interpretation of what is ‘free speech’ in these spaces? Positioning myself as a scholar in the social computing/CSCW space, I draw on legal, political science, and CMC theories and scholarship to inform my exploration of these questions. I investigate the potential of engaging an alternative, relational theory of free speech in platform policies and how this may alter young adult Gen Z women’s forms of engagement in online political discourse. I draw on design fiction to re-conceptualize moderation practices rooted in a relational interpretation of free speech and ideate on how this underlying change may affect engagement in public spaces of discourse. Through this work, I hope to encourage researchers and scholars to question and challenge how the culturally pervasive US-interpretation of free speech is being engaged by social media platforms. Specifically, to question whether it is being used to silence rather than to enable free speech.