Platform Governance Research Articles

Payment Services, the Deplatforming of Sex, and the Governance of Platform Intimacy

Much of the considerable regulatory attention directed at sexual content online focuses on platform content moderation policies, but payment and advertising services play a gatekeeping role on platform content as well. In 2021, OnlyFans cited the difficulties of meeting the policies of payment processors and banks in its announcement that the site would stop hosting sexual content. This decision was subsequently retracted under public criticism of the platform for profiting off sex workers and then removing them from the platform. The case of OnlyFans provided a rare reversal of the moral panics that often surround the governance of sexual content online. This article discusses the deplatforming of sex as a case of contested platform governance identifies how public conflicts over platform governance of sexual content fit within broader “no platform” politics, and draws on research from affected communities to make the case for alternative policy approaches.

Dynamic game analysis of E-commerce platform rewards and research & development investment of settled enterprises

Contributing to the literature on the E-commerce platform governance, this paper analyzes the e-commerce platform's optimal reward strategy and settled enterprises' optimal Research & Development (R&D) investment decision with different R&D patterns. The results indicate that the platform's rewards can increase settled enterprises' R&D investment and overall benefit of the ecosystem. Under R&D competition pattern, the platform's optimal reward is positively correlated with the technology spillover effect. Under R&D cartels and RJV competition patterns, the platform's optimal reward will increase as the degree of product complementarity. Under R&D competition pattern, settled enterprises' R&D investment and product quality reach the optimum.

Platform Governance and Education Policy: Power and Politics in Emerging Edtech Ecologies

This article develops a framework for understanding and analyzing the intermediary work of platform technologies, and their owners, as an emerging form of platform governance in educational systems. Our investigation is guided by two questions: (a) How do platform technologies shape policy by brokering relations among commercial, technical, and educational actors? And (b) how might these relations contribute to, or compromise, educational equity as they are folded into existing governance regimes? We address these questions by bringing together two critical orientations—critical policy analysis and critical platform studies—to map the power and politics of platformization in and across education systems.

Beyond sovereignty as authority: the multiplicity of European approaches to digital sovereignty

Digital Sovereignty is core to many contemporary debates on the regulation of digital technology, securing supply chains and strengthening the digital economy. In this paper, we focus on the European debates and policies around this project. We argue that the notion of digital sovereignty should be understood more as an overarching economic, societal and geopolitical project, rather than a project aimed at achieving any kind of political sovereignty or autarky in the digital sector. We arrive at this conclusion by analysing European policy documents and commentaries from various stakeholders for two cases: platform governance and semiconductors. The case of platform governance shows how the EU and its member states struggle to extend their regulatory power over the ‘data monopolies’ of the major Silicon Valley companies. The other is semiconductors, where the EU has kick-started several projects to improve the competitiveness of European manufacturers in a highly integrated global market. These examples demonstrate two things: a) that the pursuit of digital sovereignty does have some impact on the Internet (platform regulation) but also extends to other technological fields beyond it (semiconductors) and b) that digital sovereignty is not only a regulatory or technological project but also an economic, societal and geopolitical one.

E-Business Ecosystems: Understanding the Dynamics of Digital Platforms and Marketplaces

The study investigates the intricate dynamics of e-business ecosystems, focusing on factors such as network effects, platform governance, technological innovation, and regulatory scrutiny. Through a comprehensive review of literature and analysis of various perspectives, the research aims to elucidate the evolving landscape of digital platforms and marketplaces. Employing a qualitative research design, the study synthesizes insights from scholarly articles, industry reports, and expert opinions to discern patterns and trends in e-business ecosystems. The findings underscore the transformative impact of digital platforms on traditional business models, highlighting the emergence of platform-based business models and the democratization of commerce. Moreover, the study delves into the implications of these dynamics for competition, regulation, and consumer behavior within e-business ecosystems. It identifies key challenges such as platform competition, regulatory scrutiny, data privacy concerns, and cybersecurity threats, and explores strategies for addressing them. The implications of the research extend to businesses, policymakers, and scholars, informing strategic decision-making, regulatory frameworks, and future research agendas. By advancing our understanding of e-business ecosystems, the study contributes to the development of innovative solutions and strategies that drive economic growth, foster innovation, and promote inclusive prosperity.

Vertical and horizontal complementarities in platform ecosystems

ABSTRACT We develop a framework of vertical and horizontal complementarities in platform ecosystems. Complementarity is a key theoretical construct for scholars investigating digital platforms and ecosystems, often mentioned in the context of complements, components, modularity, interdependence, and synergies. We shortly review the literature on complementarities in general strategy literature and then conceptualise complementarities in platform ecosystems. We distinguish between ‘vertical complementarity’ which signifies how complements (e.g., apps) increase the value of a platform (e.g., Android) and ‘horizontal complementarity’ which relates to the value creating complementarities between complements on a platform (e.g., an email and a calendar app). This distinction helps to clarify the notion of complementarities in platform ecosystems and has implications for our understanding of network effects, interdependence, generativity, platform governance, and platform strategy.

A constitutional reflector? Assessing societal and digital constitutionalism in Meta’s Oversight Board

Abstract This article explores the use of constitutional narratives in social media platform governance, addressing the concept of digital constitutionalism. It aims to elucidate how digital constitutionalism manifests in platforms and the implications for democratizing these governance environments. It argues that digital constitutionalism exposes three goals toward platform governance: (1) an analogous application of constitutional values in private landscapes; (2) an ideological framework permeating multiple normativity levels; and (3) a policy consideration framing the symmetry of regulatory efforts with fundamental values. These three objectives hinge on a liberal and normative approach to constitutionalism, detaching from the political and social considerations at the centre of constitutional democracy. The article argues that this leads to extensive legitimacy issues when considering the transnational character of social media platforms and the localized issues of its users, as explored through an analysis of Meta’s Oversight Board. It is argued that a societal perspective of (digital) constitutionalism must guide the institution’s goals and procedures to promote legitimacy and accountability. This societal approach exposes the reliability issues of the established self-referencing system. It also allows an analysis of the hybridization of traditional constitutional principles in the emerging societal constitution developed by the corporation.

Fly or fall with the wings of live streamers? Quality signaling and platform governance in live streaming commerce

AbstractPlatforms play a regulatory role in governing live streamers. We build an analytical model to study the platform governance and its impacts on the signaling effects of live streamers. Unlike traditional signaling games, we incorporate the interaction between consumers and live streamers, and the signaling costs also relate to platform governance. Results indicate that low marginal costs for governance do not necessarily induce the platform to govern live streamers rigorously, especially when consumers and live streamers lack interaction. Strict governance can help the signaling effects of live streamers.

Socio‐technical issues in the platform‐mediated gig economy: A systematic literature review: An Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) paper

AbstractThe gig economy and gig work have grown quickly in recent years and have drawn much attention from researchers in different fields. Because the platform mediated gig economy is a relatively new phenomenon, studies have produced a range of interesting findings; of interest here are the socio‐technical issues that this work has surfaced. This systematic literature review (SLR) provides a snapshot of a range of socio‐technical issues raised in the last 12 years of literature focused on the platform mediated gig economy. Based on a sample of 515 papers gathered from nine databases in multiple disciplines, 132 were coded that specifically studied the gig economy, gig work, and gig workers. Three main socio‐technical themes were identified: (1) the digital workplace, which includes information infrastructure and digital labor that are related to the nature of gig work and the user agency; (2) algorithmic management, which includes platform governance, performance management, information asymmetry, power asymmetry, and system manipulation, relying on a diverse set of technological tools including algorithms and big data analytics; (3) ethical design, as a relevant value set that gig workers expect from the platform, which includes trust, fairness, equality, privacy, and transparency. A social informatics perspective is used to rethink the relationship between gig workers and platforms, extract the socio‐technical issues noted in prior research, and discuss the underexplored aspects of the platform mediated gig economy. The results draw attention to understudied yet critically important socio‐technical issues in the gig economy that suggest short‐ and long‐term opportunities for future research directions.

Open Data governance at the Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform (CONP): From the Walled Garden to the Arboretum.

Scientific research communities pursue dual imperatives in implementing strategies to share their data. These communities attempt to maximize the accessibility of biomedical data for downstream research use, in furtherance of open science objectives. Simultaneously, such communities safeguard the interests of research participants through data stewardship measures and the integration of suitable risk disclosures to the informed consent process. The Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform (CONP) convened an Ethics and Governance Committee composed of experts in bioethics, neuroethics, and law to develop holistic policy tools, organizational approaches, and technological supports to align the open governance of data with ethical and legal norms. The CONP has adopted novel platform governance methods that favor full data openness, legitimated through the use of robust deidentification processes and informed consent practices. The experience of the CONP is articulated as a potential template for other open science efforts to further build upon. This experience highlights informed consent guidance, deidentification practices, ethicolegal metadata, platform-level norms, and commercialization and publication policies as the principal pillars of a practicable approach to the governance of open data. The governance approach adopted by the CONP stands as a viable model for the broader neuroscience and open science communities to adopt for sharing data in full open access.

Authenticity Governance and the Market for Social Media Engagements: The Shaping of Disinformation at the Peripheries of Platform Ecosystems

Social media engagements, such as likes and follows, have become crucial for driving algorithmic recommendations and underpinning platform economies. This has given rise to disinformation industries that focus on the production and sale of engagements, including Instagram followers—a phenomenon we term the “engagement as a service” market. However, this market poses significant challenges for empirical research as its operations remain obscured from the scrutiny of platforms, their users, and researchers alike. In this article, we propose a mixed-methods approach to make visible the relationship between the engagement market and platform governance, the latter of which increasingly aims to moderate account behavior in terms of authenticity and inauthenticity—what we refer to as “authenticity governance.” By developing this approach, we explore the relationship between the engagement market and platform ecosystems through three case studies: (1) engagement market responses to platform governance; (2) the evolution of engagement as a service; and (3) testing the quality of engagement as a service on Instagram. These investigations allow us to comprehend disinformation as an ongoing negotiation between the engagement market and authenticity governance. Overall, our three integrated approaches can help researchers move forward with the empirical study of disinformation markets that operate at the periphery of platform ecosystems. In short, this article presents a methodological outlook for analyzing (in)authentic engagements as a form of disinformation.

Hold-Up, Innovation, and Platform Governance

Hold-Up, Innovation, and Platform Governance

Conceptualising India's Safe Harbour in the Era of Platform Governance

Conceptualising India's Safe Harbour in the Era of Platform Governance

A Cultural View of Platform Governance

A Cultural View of Platform Governance

Researching under the platform gaze: Rethinking the challenges of platform governance research

Researching under the platform gaze: Rethinking the challenges of platform governance research

Discourse Analysis of Social Media Discourse: Construction and Deconstruction of Social Reality

With social media’s rise and widespread application, social science research has entered a new era, bringing new challenges and opportunities to the academic community on how to use social media data for high-quality social reality construction and deconstruction research. Based on the dynamic evolution of social media development, this study constructs a theoretical framework for social media discourse analysis, aiming to explain the social reality construction and development mechanism jointly generated by user- generated content (UGC) and algorithmic recommendation systems in terms of discourse dissemination mechanism and information circulation mechanism. The core goal of social media development is to provide information services that meet user expectations, while committed to continuously improving user experience quality and enhancing user satisfaction. To achieve this goal, we have proposed a series of measures, such as strengthening information control based on the internal circulation of content quality, building an interactive mechanism between users and platform quality perception, and establishing an evaluation system for user feedback and platform governance to achieve high-quality development of social media, promote the construction and deconstruction of social reality, and truly meet user needs.

Token Tradability as a Platform Governance Mechanism: Evidence from a Policy Change

Token Tradability as a Platform Governance Mechanism: Evidence from a Policy Change

Moderating Model Marketplaces: Platform Governance Puzzles for AI Intermediaries

Moderating Model Marketplaces: Platform Governance Puzzles for AI Intermediaries

A Study on the Internal Logic and Governance Effectiveness of Platform-Based Organizations from the Perspective of Digital Governance

Abstract This paper first constructs a basic framework for digital governance of platform-type organizations and explores the application of digital governance of platform-type organizations and the social governance process from the three dimensions of the logic of efficiency, the logic of legitimacy, and the logic of social relations. Then, the driving elements of digital governance of platform-based organizations are studied using the fsQCA method and QCA analysis, and the influence of social synergy and people’s participation on the effectiveness of digital governance of platform-based organizations is analyzed. The results show that attention allocation, social governance resources, digital governance capacity, social digital environment, cultural openness, peer competition pressure, and innovation environment need to reach at least 94.5%, 79.53%, 75.4%, 81.5%, 77.5%, 78.35%, and 78.33% of the social governance quality bottleneck level, respectively. This research paper explores the drivers and influencers of platform governance performance, which helps to identify the patterns of platform operations.

"YOUTUBE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT CREATORS": HOW YOUTUBERS USE THE PLATFORM TO PROMOTE ACCOUNTABILITY

Unsatisfied with the black-boxing of algorithmic governance and platform governance on YouTube more generally, creators have begun to seek accountability through other means, deploying their skills, audiences, and situated knowledge to investigate the platform’s operations. This paper examines a phenomenon we term $2 , or the use of publicity via content creation to reveal failures, oversights, or harmful policies on a platform. We analyzed 250 videos featuring issues of platform accountability following a grounded theory approach. Our results revealed that most videos calling out the platform took the form of vlogs that were negative in tone towards YouTube, or a mix of negative and positive. YouTube itself was the actor most targeted for accountability, but automated systems, other creators, YouTube employees, and even former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki were all prominently cited. Most complaints were aimed at YouTube’s policies, lack of communication, or perceived bias against creators of certain demographics or who made undesirable types of content. Claims of censorship were also prominent, as were frustrations with YouTube’s appeals process and the cultural disconnect between YouTube users and YouTube corporate. Publicizing problems with the platform in a way that draws attention from audiences, news media, and fellow creators represents one of the most important ways YouTubers can participate in platform governance. Our study outlines the primary methods they use to do so and the reasons that motivate them to engage in user-generated accountability.