DIGITAL SELF-REGULATION:

FROM EXCLUSIONARY NORMATIVITY TO NORMATIVE DIALOGUE WITH THE STATE

Abstract

This paper aims at studying the phenomenon of self-regulation in digital platforms and apps with an eye to the destructive and constructive effects in relation to the state. The self-regulation is bound by contractual and associative forms, which transcend the interests of those involved in a potential legal conflict. The platforms and apps are, in that sense, much more linked to an associative notion, conveying greater binding force based on the capacity of adhesion of users. The large number of user adhesions demands, on the one hand, quick responses to internal demands involving those who use the platform or the app and, on the other hand, can put pressure on the state to change its legal norms and adapt to private normativity. This normative issue can be either constructive or destructive in the relationship between the state and private actors. The mutual observation between state and digital actors and regulated self-regulation might be a good way to establish limits to self-regulation without destructing the innovative capacity of these actors, even if it leaves the structural problem of social exclusion unsolved.