Research articles on GOVERNANCE

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.

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.

Introduction to the special issue on content moderation on digital platforms Content moderation on digital platforms: Beyond states and firms

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.

Labour pains: Content moderation challenges in Mastodon growth

Charlotte Spencer-Smith, University of Klagenfurt
Tales Tomaz, University of Salzburg
PUBLISHED ON: 31 Mar 2025 DOI: 10.14763/2025.1.1831

Mastodon growth after mass user switching from Twitter posed many challenges to content moderation, but responses have varied in Mastodon communities, differing from a top-down approach as in corporate social media.

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.

(Un)disclosed brand partnerships: How platform policies and interfaces shape commercial content for influencers

Taylor Annabell, Utrecht University
Laura Aade, University of Luxembourg
Catalina Goanta, Utrecht University
PUBLISHED ON: 15 Nov 2024 DOI: 10.14763/2024.4.1814

This paper analyses how platform policies and interfaces of TikTok, YouTube, Snap, and Instagram shape commercial content for influencers and the legal duty to disclose such content under European consumer law.

Between the cracks: Blind spots in regulating media concentration and platform dependence in the EU

Theresa Josephine Seipp, University of Amsterdam
Natali Helberger, University of Amsterdam
Claes de Vreese, University of Amsterdam
Jef Ausloos, University of Amsterdam
PUBLISHED ON: 14 Nov 2024 DOI: 10.14763/2024.4.1813

The DSA, DMA, and EMFA aim to regulate platform power over digital services and markets while establishing rules to protect media freedom, pluralism, and editorial independence, notably through efforts to address media concentration; however, they seem to overlook some of the underlying causes driving these concentration threats.