Who should own your digital data?

We should view user data as a public resource, akin to the broadcast spectrum. The spectrum broadcasters use is “owned by the people.” It is governed so as to assure that the select few who have the privilege to access the spectrum serve the public interest. User data, in its aggregate form, can — and should — be treated similarly, as a public resource. Just as broadcasters built their businesses on the collectively owned spectrum, social media platforms built their businesses on our data, data that are best thought of as being collectively owned. Treating aggregate user data as a public resource would provide a strong justification for policymakers who want to address growing concerns about violence, hate speech and disinformation on social media. It could bring social media under the regulatory umbrella that is well established for other electronic media sectors. If we treat our social media user data as a public resource, then platforms that gather and monetize these data should abide by public interest obligation — seven if some of these obligations infringe upon their First Amendment rights. These obligations might include restrictions on how user data are gathered and share and explicit obligations to police for hate speech, violence and disinformation.

[Philip Napoli is the James R. Shepley Professor of Public Policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, and author of "Social Media and the Public Interest: Media Regulation in the Disinformation Age"]