Abstract
The objective of this study is to explore the extent to which legal protections for personal data on social media platforms in South Africa compare with those in the European Union (EU). The EU was chosen for the comparative study as it is a leading jurisdiction in terms of data protection legislation on a global level with its 2018 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). South Africa implemented the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) 4 of 2013, which only came into full effect in 2021, based on the GDPR, albeit with some differences.
The lessons derived from this study can be used to create a more cohesive and harmonised legal framework in South Africa that should equally speak both to user empowerment and privacy on social media platforms and corporate compliance and data protection practices and behaviours.
The study looks at the role of regulatory bodies in overseeing and enforcing data protection laws, such as instituting penalties and sanctions for non-compliance with data protection laws within the social media industry and the extent to which this impacts the behaviour of social media corporations regarding data protection business practices.
The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the efficacy of current legal frameworks designed to protect personal data privacy is huge. It ranges from cross-border application of AI on social media platforms that reshape the boundaries of personal data protection and complicate the currently existing jurisdictional and enforcement mechanisms, the use of autonomous AI systems in personal data processing to data breaches facilitated by AI. Furthermore this will also look at how AI-powered recommendation systems and sentiment analysis and behavioural tracking challenge existing notions of user consent and data ownership under current legal frameworks.
The inherent design and nature of cyberspace, and by extension social media platforms, means that users’ privacy is compromised either directly or indirectly. This still does not take away from the fact that the platforms have become critical to functioning modern societies and democracies with many positive benefits on many levels. The study thus seeks to contribute to the continuous need to find a balance between promoting the development of these technologies, and allowing users to exercise their freedom of expression, connect, be
entrepreneurial on social media platforms while protecting their right to privacy through the law.