scholarly journals Elections, institutions, and the regulatory politics of platform governance: The case of the German NetzDG

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 102145
Author(s):  
Robert Gorwa
Keyword(s):  
Platform Governance ◽  
Regulatory Politics

scholarly journals Elections, Institutions, and the Regulatory Politics of Platform Governance: The Case of the German NetzDG

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Gorwa
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Information Access ◽  
Institutional Constraints ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Platform Governance ◽  
Intermediary Liability ◽  
Regulatory Politics ◽  
Policy Proposals ◽  
Key Questions

Policy proposals for higher rules and standards governing how major user- generated content platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube moderate socially problematic content have become increasingly prevalent since the negotiation of the German Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) in 2017. Although a growing body of scholarship has emerged to assess the normative and legal dimensions of these regulatory developments in Germany and beyond, the legal scholarship on intermediary liability leaves key questions about why and how these policies are developed, shaped, and adopted unanswered. The goal of this article is thus to provide a deep case study into the NetzDG from a regulatory politics perspective, highlighting the importance of political and regulatory factors currently under-explored in the burgeoning interdisciplinary literatures on platform governance and platform regulation. The empirical account presented here, which draws on 30 interviews with stakeholders involved in the debate around the NetzDG’s adoption, as well as hundreds of pages of deliberative documents obtained via freedom of information access requests, outlines how the NetzDG took shape, and how it overcame various significant obstacles (ranging from resistance from other stakeholders and the European Union’s frameworks against regulatory fragmentation) to eventually become law. The article argues, throughout this case study, that both domestic politics and transnational institutional constraints are crucial policy factors that should receive more attention as an important part of platform regulation debates.

scholarly journals The covid-19 Infodemic and Online Platforms as Intermediary Fiduciaries under International Law

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 331-347
Author(s):  
Barrie Sander ◽  
Nicholas Tsagourias
Keyword(s):  
Public Good ◽  
International Law ◽  
Online Platform ◽  
Platform Governance ◽  
Online Platforms ◽  
Different Dimensions ◽  
Fiduciary Relationships ◽  
The Relationship

Reflecting on the covid-19 infodemic, this paper identifies different dimensions of information disorder associated with the pandemic, examines how online platform governance has been evolving in response, and reflects on what the crisis reveals about the relationship between online platforms, international law, and the prospect of regulation. The paper argues that online platforms are intermediary fiduciaries of the international public good, and for this reason regulation should be informed by relevant standards that apply to fiduciary relationships.

Behavioural Economic Influences on Primary Market Disclosure – The Case of the EU Regulation on European Crowdfunding Service Providers

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 428-463
Author(s):  
Konstantinos Serdaris
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Preliminary Evaluation ◽  
Full Disclosure ◽  
Content Quality ◽  
Platform Governance ◽  
Capital Markets Union ◽  
Alternative Means ◽  
High Level ◽  
Start Ups ◽  
The Eu

Abstract On 5 October 2020, as part of the Capital Markets Union (CMU) project, the European Parliament adopted, in second reading, Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 on European crowdfunding service providers for business (‘ECSP Regulation’). This Regulation, which shall apply as of 10 November 2021, consists of rules which aim at improving access to crowdfunding for EU businesses in need of capital, particularly start-ups, while, at the same time, providing a high level of protection to investors. To attain that it builds on three sets of measures: clear rules on information disclosures for project owners and crowdfunding platforms; rules on platform governance and risk management; and a coherent approach to supervision and enforcement. The focus of this article is on the disclosure-related set of provisions. Its aim is to demonstrate how the new rules embrace a more behavioural approach to primary market disclosure which, in contrast to the paradigm of full disclosure, focuses on the content, quality and framing of disclosure as an alternative means of enabling informed and, thus, allocatively efficient investment decisions. In a second step, it seeks to provide a preliminary evaluation of these measures both from a practical and a normative perspective.

Book Reviews: Women and Politics in New Zealand, Voters' Vengeance: The 1990 Election in New Zealand and the Fate of the Fourth Labour Government, The Domestic Bases of Grand Strategy, The Politics of the Training Market: From Manpower Services Commission to Training and Enterprise Councils, Public Policy and the Nature of the New Right, Managing the United Kingdom: An Introduction to its Political Economy and Public Policy, Citizenship and Employment: Investigating Post-Industrial Options, Government by the Market? The Politics of Public Choice, Responsive Regulation: Transcending the Deregulation Debate, Regulatory Politics in Transition, The Politics of Regulation: A Comparative Perspective, Brother Number One: A Political Biography of Pol Pot, The Tragedy of Cambodian History: Politics, War and Revolution since 1945, Welfare States and Working Mothers, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States, Japan and the United States: Global Dimensions of Economic Power, Political Dynamics in Contemporary Japan, Japan's Foreign Policy after the Cold War: Coping with Change, Soviet Studies Guide, Directory of Russian MPs, Mikhail Gorbachev and the End of Soviet Power, Red Sunset: The Failure of Soviet Politics, Six Years that Shook the World: Perestroika — The Impossible Project, The Politics of Transition: Shaping a Post-Soviet Future, Democracy and Decision: The Pure Theory of Electoral Preference, Probabilistic Voting Theory, Contested Closets: The Politics and Ethics of Outing, Queer in America: Sex, the Media, and the Closets of Power

1994 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 717-730
Author(s):  
Preston King ◽  
Marco Cesa ◽  
Martin Rhodes ◽  
Stephen Wilks ◽  
Christopher Tremewan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
The United States ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Mikhail Gorbachev ◽  
Political Biography ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Regulatory Politics

The demise of #NSFW: Contested platform governance and Tumblr’s 2018 adult content ban

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482199671
Author(s):  
Jeanna Sybert
Keyword(s):  
Core Values ◽  
Term Survival ◽  
Long Term Survival ◽  
Community Values ◽  
Critical Moment ◽  
Platform Governance ◽  
Sexually Explicit ◽  
Explicit Content ◽  
Insight Into

On December 3, 2018, Tumblr announced that it would ban sexually explicit content from the platform, drawing immediate backlash from users. The ensuing discord on the site is conceptualized here as contested platform governance, or a conflict between users and ownership, in which not only are a platform’s policies and features challenged, but also its core values, identity, and/or purposes are put into question. By examining 238 Tumblr posts, this analysis identifies the unique ways users combatted the ban and (re)inscribed community values, while also contesting the owners’ legitimacy to govern the platform. Holding implications for the site’s long-term survival, such conflicts capture a critical moment in which the boundaries of power between users and ownership are challenged and, possibly, transformed. By examining Tumblr’s Not Safe For Work (NSFW) ban through the lens of platform governance, this study offers insight into how power and its limits are negotiated online.

Platform Governance in the Sharing Economy

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
pp. 11142
Author(s):  
Christina Kyprianou ◽  
Chad Navis
Keyword(s):  
Sharing Economy ◽  
Platform Governance

Platform Power and Regulatory Politics: Polanyi for the 21st Century

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Cioffi ◽  
Martin Kenney ◽  
John Zysman
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Regulatory Politics

scholarly journals ACTIVIST BROWSER EXTENSIONS AS INTERFACE DÉTOURNEMENT: REMINDING, COPING, AND INFRASTRUCTURAL ALIGNMENT

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiancheng Cao
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Situationist International ◽  
Web Browser ◽  
Platform Governance ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Web ◽  
Browser Extensions

This paper investigates web browser extensions as an under-researched media object for their capacity for activism. “Activist extensions” disrupt a webpage’s intended use and redirect users’ attention to social issues by modifying textual, visual, or auditory elements of the web user interface. The relevance of the study stems from the ubiquity of the web browser as a communication tool and the potential of browser extensions to counter its power in shaping how web content is delivered to users. Based on the notions of transduction and affordance, the critical vocabulary of the Situationist International, and the conceptualization of platform governance through the provision of infrastructural services, this paper asks: Through what mechanism do activist extensions redirect users’ attention to social issues? What are the potential implications for users? And, how can browser platforms affect the creation and distribution of activist extensions? The study adopts a mixed-methods approach that includes discursive interface analysis of the extensions’ modification of the browser interface, critical discourse analysis of user comments on these extensions, and semi-structured interviews with extension developers. Major findings of the study include: 1) the redirection of users’ attention from the webpage to social issues is achieved through the mechanism of $2 , 2) activist extensions function as $2 that provides users with a coping mechanism against certain online rhetoric, and 3) the creation and distribution of activist extensions are conditioned by an $2 imposed by the browser platform on extension developers.

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