Key Idea: Expression is everything a person communicates — not just speech. The examinable shift is that publishing became free and being heard did not, so the limit moved from permission to selection.
Paper 1
- Part a: define expression, or identify its functions
- Part b: explain why publishing is not the same as being heard
- Part c: how far are platforms responsible for what is on them?
Paper 2
- Q2: analyse a source's claim about moderation or reach
- Q3: compare sources that weigh speech and safety differently
- Q4: synthesise sources on online communities
Everywhere else
- Identity: expression is how identity is performed
- Power: the ranking is where expression meets power
- Values: speech against safety is the standard ethics case
Hosting is not amplifying
| Hosting | Amplifying | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Allowing something to exist on the service | Recommending it to people who did not seek it |
| Whose decision | The person who posted | The platform's ranking |
| Defensible to regulate? | Hard — it is close to prohibiting speech | Much easier — it is the platform's own act |
Almost every unanswerable question about platform responsibility becomes answerable once you separate what a platform permits from what it promotes.
Community, and what holds one together
What makes a group a community rather than an audience
- Repeated interaction in a shared space, so people recognise each other across time.
- Shared expectations that can be broken, which is what makes membership something that can be lost.
- Unwritten rules learned by taking part, which hold the group together and make it harder to join as it grows.
Important: A rule strict enough for the working function is too strict for the social one, and the people it does not suit cannot leave one function without leaving all of them.
Exam-style questions
Examine the view that anonymity online does more harm than good.
🔒 Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Suggest two ways a platform could reduce harassment without removing anonymity.
🔒 Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Quick check
What did digital systems change about expression? Publishing became free; being heard is decided by a ranking, so the limit moved from permission to selection.
Hosting or amplifying? Hosting is allowing something to exist; amplifying is recommending it. Only the second is the platform's own act.
What makes a community? Repeated interaction plus shared expectations that can be broken.
Why is a joke a problem at work? Context collapse — every audience receives the same message, so one presentation has to serve all of them.
Exam tips
- Separate hosting from amplifying in the first sentence of any platform-responsibility answer.
- For anonymity questions, name who depends on it. The answer changes once the people are specific.
- “Publishing is free; being heard is not” is a strong opening line.