Social Media Regulation in the Global South

This book provides an in-depth examination of the legal and policy challenges posed by social media in Bangladesh, offering both scholarly analysis and practical solutions to navigate the digital age, with lessons for and from the Global South. The work begins by mapping the spectrum of civil wrongs and criminal offences arising on social media, and evaluating the evidentiary challenges posed by social media content. It then turns to the reshaping of religious expression and individual identity online, and interrogates the contours of free speech in a densely networked society. Subsequent chapters examine privacy on social media and the implications of social media for national security governance, illustrating the tensions between individual rights, democratic promise, and securitised overreach. The discussion then shifts to regulatory mechanisms, examining the corporate liability of social media platforms, the legal duties of intermediaries, innovative taxation models for global platforms, governance of AI algorithms and the state’s oversight of fact-checking bodies. It further examines social media’s influence on elections, intellectual-property tensions at the intersection of OTT services and social media, and the evolving law of defamation in the digital age. Finally, the book situates Bangladesh’s domestic reforms within international governance debates, showing how UN bodies and multilateral frameworks inform national policy. Through empirical data, doctrinal analysis and comparative insights, the collection offers actionable recommendations to strengthen legal frameworks, ensure accountability, and foster an equitable digital ecosystem. With its relevance extending far beyond national borders, the volume will be of interest to academics, researchers and policy-makers working in the areas of Constitutional Law, International Human Rights Law, Law and Technology, Social Media Law, Political Science, and Media Studies.