This paper details the current landscape of the technical, social, and governance systems that allow people to participate in the development of open source software (OSS), using GitHub as a case study. This paper also details the laws in the U.S. and the EU around platform liability for user-generated content. Here, “open source software” refers to software that is freely and publicly available for distribution, editing, and use. OSS platforms such as GitHub must contend with lawmakers’ legislative and regulatory content moderation efforts, yet currently, lawmakers do not adequately consider how their social-media-driven content moderation policies affect OSS, a critical digital infrastructure in our modern world. The typical content that users generate on OSS platforms is vastly different from that on social media platforms: dependent functional code vs. independent user expression. Lawmakers’ lack of distinction between different types of content means they take for granted a crucial initial question: who is best positioned to address harms resulting from user-generated content? Recent content moderation efforts suggest that lawmakers believe that this responsibility is content-agnostic and should fall on platforms, while recent cybersecurity efforts suggest otherwise. Ultimately, this paper calls for the exploration of how changes to content moderation law will impact OSS and urges lawmakers to more fully contemplate OSS in their endeavors.
Link to Full Article:
Code as Content: Open Source Software and Platform Liability