The Grand Game. Social Networks and ‘Contract-Based’ Good Morals

The paper analyzes the place and role of ‘contract-based’ good morals (boni mores, bonnes moeurs, buon costume ‘stipulativo’) in the context of sharing platforms built on a network of contracts with end-users. As a matter of fact, virtual communities have outgrown reality. Virtual and real systems contaminate each other, just like contract- based rules of conduct governing the life of virtual communities contaminate those outside of them. Most standards of conduct in force in the social networks are drafted in such a way as to reflect the well-known doctrines of public policy (ordre public) and good morals(boni mores, bonnes moeurs, buon costume) with regard to any line of conduct generally qualifying as ‘objectionable’. What remains to be assessed are the terms and requisites necessary to define ‘objectionable’ – a task by and large entrusted to the control of an algorithm and/or a moderator – and the effects thereof on extant contracts.