Commentators as prosumers: A legal perspective on their futures

Abstract

Internet technologies have empowered commentators to participate in information production. This phenomenon has been studied as citizen journalism and media convergence. However, one perspective has remained underdeveloped: commentators are empowered as prosumers who are neither consumers nor producers. Commentators prosume comments for themselves and their communities rather than for sale. Therefore, in terms of Toffler, prosumers can raise the Sector A economy, which is typical of agricultural society, and which is overshadowed by the market or the Sector B economy in industrial society. This article highlights prosumers' freedom to post lawful comments and the implications for this freedom coming from moderation standards imposed in the EU by the European Court of Human Rights and the Digital Services Act. The analysis led to the construction of three models of information production/prosumption and the anticipatin of their futures. The article concludes by suggesting how prosumers' freedom to post lawful comments and moderators' control over comments prosumption can be balanced better from a legal perspective.