Research Articles

Introduction to the special issue on content moderation on digital platforms

Romain Badouard, Paris-Panthéon-Assas University
Anne Bellon, University of Technology of Compiègne
PUBLISHED ON: 31 Mar 2025 DOI: 10.14763/2025.1.2005

Content moderation encompasses a great diversity of actors who develop specific practices. Their precise contribution to the democratisation of content regulation, and to the balance between public and private interests in platform governance, remains little studied. This special issue is an attempt at remedying this.

Platform governance and civil society organisations: Tensions between reform and revolution continuum

Eugenia Siapera, University College Dublin
Elizabeth Farries, University College Dublin
PUBLISHED ON: 31 Mar 2025 DOI: 10.14763/2025.1.2002

Ideological differences, financial precarity, and tensions within the milieu of digital rights civil society organisations involved in platform governance advocacy can undermine these organisations’ ability to advocate for reform at all, let alone engage in a radical redefinition of the terms under which (platform) governance takes place.

This article compares the Stop Hate for Profit campaign and the Global Alliance for Responsible Media to evaluate efforts that leverage advertisers’ financial power to challenge platform content moderation.

News and Opinion Pieces

Framing the role of experts in platform governance: Negotiating the code of practice on disinformation as a case study

Kateryna Chystoforova, European University Institute
Urbano Reviglio, European University Institute
PUBLISHED ON: 31 Mar 2025 DOI: 10.14763/2025.1.1823

This study examines experts' role within the EU's Code of Practice on Disinformation, highlighting challenges in co-regulatory processes and platform governance.

This article compares the Stop Hate for Profit campaign and the Global Alliance for Responsible Media to evaluate efforts that leverage advertisers’ financial power to challenge platform content moderation.

Despite their active and growing involvement in monitoring the implementation of the “Code of Conduct on countering illegal hate speech online”, civil society organisations have been barred from translating this expanded role into enhanced influence at the policy-making level.

Safer spaces by design? Federated socio-technical architectures in content moderation

Ksenia Ermoshina, National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
Francesca Musiani, National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
PUBLISHED ON: 31 Mar 2025 DOI: 10.14763/2025.1.1827

This article analyses the role that informational architectures and infrastructures in federated social media platforms play in content moderation processes.

Aspirational platform governance: How creators legitimise content moderation through accusations of bias

Blake Hallinan, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
CJ Reynolds, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Yehonatan Kuperberg, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Omer Rothenstein, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
PUBLISHED ON: 31 Mar 2025 DOI: 10.14763/2025.1.1829

Although commercial social media platforms provide few formal channels for participation in platform governance, creators aspire to influence decisions and policies through expressive forms of civic engagement that ultimately legitimate platforms as arbiters of public discourse.

Civil society’s role in constitutionalising global content governance

Nicola Palladino, University of Salerno
Dennis Redeker, University of Bremen
Edoardo Celeste, Dublin City University
PUBLISHED ON: 31 Mar 2025 DOI: 10.14763/2025.1.1830

This article explores how civil society can contribute to constitutionalising social media global content governance by bridging international human rights law with platform policies.