CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISMS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION IN SOCIAL MEDIA GOVERNANCE

Abstract

The rapid expansion of social media platforms has fundamentally altered the architecture of information exchange, public discourse, and civic participation. These platforms exercise significant influence over rights traditionally protected under international human rights law, including freedom of expression, the right to privacy, non-discrimination, and access to information. However, despite this increasing normative and practical influence, the human rights obligations of social media companies remain legally disjointed, inconsistently enforced, and largely non-binding. Social media platforms operate within a regulatory gap where they effectively make quasi-legal determinations affecting fundamental rights without corresponding accountability structures comparable to those imposed on states. It is thus necessary to assess the status of social media platforms as actors in the protection and violation of human rights, and to evaluate the adequacy of existing legal and regulatory frameworks in holding such platforms accountable for human rights protection and violation. The study is doctrinal in nature, and employs the use of primary and secondary sources of law in identifying and explaining the issues explored. The study finds that social media platforms function as de facto regulatory actors in the digital space, exercising significant influence over the enjoyment of fundamental human rights through content moderation, algorithmic curation, and data driven profiling. Further, while social media platforms increasingly acknowledge corporate responsibility in human rights protection, implementation of human rights safeguards remains inadequate and inconsistent, due to inadequate and sparse enforceability of existing international frameworks, resulting in a global accountability gap. The study recommends the development of binding regulatory frameworks that move beyond voluntary corporate commitments to ensure enforceable human rights obligations for social media platforms. The research further proposes the harmonisation of digital governance standards to address cross-border enforcement challenges, reduce regulatory fragmentation, and ensure more consistent protection and enforcement of fundamental human rights across digital platforms and jurisdictions.