Abstract

Internet platforms – with particular reference to Facebook and Google – have become one of the most relevant venues where public discussion and democratic debate occur. These new, unregulated, media, serve both as public squares for political speech and as tools for spreading news. In light of these aspects, the essay aims at investigating the potential compression and transfiguration of political speech and freedom of information that may take place on these digital platforms, in order to identify which solutions could be developed to preserve the standard conditions of public debate and democracy. Within this field of analysis, major attention is devoted to the issues of privatization of censorship, media pluralism, and fake news.