Freedom of the media

Andrei Richter, Comenius University
Krisztina Rozgonyi, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Joan Barata Mir, Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Monroe E. Price, University of Pennsylvania
PUBLISHED ON: 18 Jun 2026 DOI: 10.14763/2026.2.2103

Freedom of the media must evolve beyond institutional protection to safeguard citizens’ epistemic agency in digital societies where platforms and AI systems shape what we know and how we participate in democracy.

This article explores how political fear operates as an infrastructural mechanism within digital platforms, reconfiguring democratic communication through algorithmic amplification, emotional governance, and regulatory gaps.

Introduction to the special issue on Digital Solidarity Economies Digital Solidarity Economies

María Belén Albornoz, Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO)
Ricard Espelt, Open University of Catalonia
Rafael Grohmann, University of Toronto
Denise Kasparian, University of Buenos Aires
PUBLISHED ON: 6 Feb 2026 DOI: 10.14763/2026.1.2075

This introduction situates Digital Solidarity Economies (DSE) as an analytical and practical framework for reimagining the digital economy through cooperation, mutual aid, and shared ownership.

Political participatory platforms may look similar but, in practice, they redistribute power in very different ways. This article introduces a three-dimensional cube to compare their political governance, software affordances, and infrastructural dependencies, using cases from Italy, Spain, Argentina and Taiwan to show how specific sociotechnical configurations shape the effects of online political participation.

Scroll. Like. Divide. The filter bubble effect on electoral perceptions

Cristian Opariuc-Dan, Ovidius University
Tănase Tasențe, Ovidius University
Cristina-Dana Popescu, Ovidius University
PUBLISHED ON: 9 Apr 2026 DOI: 10.14763/2026.2.2090

This paper examines how algorithmic personalisation shapes electoral perceptions through the filter bubble phenomenon, using a multidimensional measurement tool applied to Romanian Facebook users.

Who’s behind the wheel? Assessing internet regulatory agencies’ autonomy from corporate interests

Elise Antoine, London School of Economics & Political Science
PUBLISHED ON: 6 Mar 2026 DOI: 10.14763/2026.1.2088

This paper examines which combinations of factors contribute to internet regulatory agencies' informal autonomy from corporate interests, building on a qualitative comparative analysis and interviews with senior officials.

Extraction-by-design: Auditing infrastructures of datafication in baby-tracking apps

Jennifer Pybus, York University
Katrina Nicole Matheson, York University
Andrea Lachmansingh, York University
PUBLISHED ON: 27 Feb 2026 DOI: 10.14763/2026.1.2087

Baby-tracking apps promise to help parents, this reveals how baby-tracking apps transform intimate caregiving into a site of cross-border data extraction, profiling, and policy non-compliance.

Seeing in the dark: Towards a broad construction of the access to data provisions of the DSA

Beatriz Botero Arcila, Sciences Po Law School
Pedro Ramaciotti, CNRS
Emma Cabale, ENS de Paris-Saclay
PUBLISHED ON: 19 Feb 2026 DOI: 10.14763/2026.1.2085

Drawing on cutting-edge social media research, the authors explain why vetted researchers need to be granted broad access to social media data to meet the objectives of the DSA.

Superplatform: A framework to analyse and regulate Google’s online ad ecosystem

Koray Caliskan, Parsons School of Design
Donald MacKenzie, University of Edinburgh
Addie McGowan, University of Salford
PUBLISHED ON: 18 Feb 2026 DOI: 10.14763/2026.1.2077

The concept of the "superplatform" presents a simple way to describe Google’s vast and complex online ad business as a dual-core system that merges market power, infrastructural dominance, and supply chain demarketisation.