Call for papers: Monetisation governance in the creator economy

Special issue of Internet Policy Review

assignment_returned Abstract submission deadline: 1 February 2027
assignment_returned Full paper submission deadline: 1 July 2027

Platform monetisation brings creators and their audiences into the world of commerce. The value proposition is promising, at least on the macro-economic level, with industry commentators concluding that the creator economy has “graduated from its ‘side hustle’ roots” and is now “Wall Street ready” (Shepherd, 2026). Yet the integration of monetisation also overhauls social media’s participation incentives, resulting in new platform configurations characterised by commercialism, algorithmic organisation, and asymmetrical relationships. These developments, alternatively referred to as the ‘new social media’ (van de Kerkhof & Goanta, 2024), ‘parasocial media’ (boyd, 2026; Shen & Hallinan, 2024), or ‘post-social media’ (Törnberg & Rogers, 2026), pose a challenge for platform governance’s traditional focus on the regulation of online content (Gorwa, 2019). While content remains important, it is increasingly bound up in commercial arrangements and debates around the value of generative AI, necessitating new conceptual and regulatory responses.

The special issue responds to this challenge by consolidating the discussion of how to regulate commerce in the creator economy under the umbrella of 'monetisation governance'. The term, championed by civil society advocate Victoire Rio, refers to “how social media platforms preside over the redistribution of enormous sums of money, and how their monetization decisions ultimately shape the information environment” (2025; for related civil society perspectives, see Bleyer-Simon, 2024; Daniel et al., 2025). While Rio focuses on platform incentive programmes that provide financial “rewards” to creators who post eligible content, we expand the concept to include other forms of commercial activity such as advertising, fan funding, direct selling, virtual goods and experiences (e.g., Roblox, Fortnite), and alternative strategies of value creation associated with Web3 such as blockchain-based models and cryptocurrencies (Potts & Rennie, 2019). The special issue seeks to conceptualise monetisation governance as a distinct policy sphere, evaluate existing approaches, and imagine new configurations of creators and commerce. 'Monetisation governance' deserves greater attention. Ample research demonstrates that monetisation perpetuates existing social inequalities (Christin & Lu, 2023; Duffy et al., 2021; Zhao et al., 2025), engenders consumer harms (Bertaglia et al., 2025; Goanta & Ranchordás, 2020; Ørmen et al., 2025), and lacks labour protections (Aade, 2025; Are & Briggs, 2023) – although platform specificity matters (Jokubauskaitė et al., 2023). The commercial practices of social media influencers deal with “intersecting legal issues” that include intellectual property, advertising, and contracts (Graves, 2025, p. 4), and raise legal questions about balancing the consumer right to product safety with the personal right to free expression (De Gregorio & Goanta, 2022; Nassar et al., 2026). Consumers face compounding layers of harm from the nature of the content they consume (e.g., conspiracy theories), and the predatory monetisation tactics used around such content (e.g., selling 5G radiation-proof underwear, Ballard et al., 2022). Technological advances in generative AI escalate individual harms into societal risks involving the production and circulation of misinformation and extreme speech (Diaz Ruiz, 2023; Goanta et al., 2025; Herasimenka et al., 2023; Huang & Liu, 2025).

Despite the urgency of the topic, both academics and policymakers lack a common understanding of the regulatory challenges associated with monetisation. The academic conversation surrounding monetisation governance has been marginal and divided by disciplinary boundaries between law (De Gregorio & Goanta, 2022; Nassar et al., 2026), information science (Wu et al., 2023; Zhao et al., 2025), and media studies (Annabell et al., 2025; Franco, 2026; Jokubauskaitė et al., 2023), even as governance within the creator economy is profoundly shaped by the intermingling of law, technology, markets, and social norms (Lessig, 2006). The policy conversation is similarly fragmented. While European regulation has turned its attention to platform power through the Digital Services Act, it reduces the issue of monetisation to platform ads and offloads responsibility to creators (Annabell, 2025). The Digital Fairness Act, currently being drafted, promises to tackle the supply chain but only in the context of influencer marketing, leaving alternative business models unaddressed. Operating at the “next frontier of tech policy” (Rio, 2025), monetisation governance needs a shared vocabulary and agenda to move the field forward.

The special issue invites interdisciplinary contributions from scholars working across the fields of policy, law, economics, design, and communication that theorise monetisation governance and evaluate existing practices and policy proposals. We approach the governance of monetisation holistically, involving the regulation of platforms, the regulation by platforms and regulation through platforms (Gillespie, 2018; Caplan, 2023). Put differently, we are interested in policies, platform design, and practices of ‘creator governance’, where creators and their audiences set community standards or publicly pressure other actors (Hallinan et al., 2024). To establish monetisation governance as an international and industry-wide concern, we call on contributors to situate their cases within the broader creator economy. Comparative approaches are particularly welcome, especially those that address the field’s disproportionate focus on mainstream, Western platforms (Liu & Yang, 2022; Siapera, 2023; Struett et al., 2024) and English-speaking creators (Poell et al., 2025), as well as its tendency to bracket off adult creators and platforms (Franco & Webber, 2024; Hallinan et al., 2025).

Focus of the papers

We seek research papers (~6,000-8,000 words) that theorise the meaning and stakes of monetisation governance, evaluate approaches to monetisation governance, and imagine new configurations of creators and commerce. Potential cases may include, but are not limited to:

Theoretical topics:

  • Comparison of the governance of speech and the governance of commerce
  • Democratic, political, and social implications of monetised speech
  • Alternative models of monetisation governance
  • Conceptualisation of (inter)dependencies across the creator economy
  • Relationship between different modes of monetisation governance
  • Implications of technological developments like generative AI

Approaches to monetisation governance:

  • Regulatory frameworks and legislation related to platforms, advertising, and commerce (e.g., EU’s Digital Services Act, Article 17 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, and France’s Law no. 2023-451)
  • Strategies of industry associations and civil society organisations (e.g., The Advertising Code for Social Media & Influencer Marketing in the Netherlands)
  • Comparisons of platform monetisation policies and reward programmes (e.g., monetisation eligibility of AI-generated content)
  • Norms, tactics and imaginaries of creators and audiences surrounding monetisation
  • Development of alternative economic arrangements (e.g., blockchain creator economy, platform cooperatives, solidarity networks, and mutual aid)


Special issue editors

Blake Hallinan (Aarhus University)

https://www.au.dk/en/bhallinan@cc.au.dk/

Taylor Annabell (Cardiff University)

https://profiles.cardiff.ac.uk/staff/annabellt

Emilija Jokubauskaitė (Aarhus University)

https://arts.au.dk/en/about-arts/staff/show/person/emilija@cc.au.dk

Catalina Goanta (Utrecht University)

https://www.uu.nl/staff/ECGoanta


Important dates

• 400 words abstracts should be sent tocreatorgovernance@gmail.com by 1 February 2027. Please include “special issue” in the subject line.

• Decisions will be sent to the authors by 1 March 2027.

• Full paper submissions of the selected abstracts should be submitted by 1 July 2027.

• Submissions must be around 6,000 words in length and have to follow the submission guidelines of Internet Policy Review. They will be peer-reviewed between July and October 2027.

• The planned publication date of this special issue is Q4 2027.


References

Aade, L. (2025). To ban or not to ban?: Understanding the impact of platform discretion in content moderation on professional Twitch streamers. In T. Annabell, C. Fieseler, C. Goanta, & I. Wildhaber (Eds.), The Hashtag Hustle (pp. 88–106). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035332816.00012


 


 

Annabell, T., Bishop, S., & Goanta, C. (2025). You and TikTok are, and will remain at all times, independent contractors.Internet Policy Review, 14(3).https://doi.org/10.14763/2025.3.2014


 


 

Are, C., & Briggs, P. (2023). The emotional and financial impact of de-platforming on creators at the margins.Social Media + Society, 9(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051231155103


 


 

Ballard, C., Goldstein, I., Mehta, P., Smothers, G., Take, K., Zhong, V., Greenstadt, R., Lauinger, T., & McCoy, D. (2022). Conspiracy brokers: Understanding the monetization of YouTube conspiracy theories. Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2022, 2707–2718. https://doi.org/10.1145/3485447.3512142


 


 

Bertaglia, T., Goanta, C., Spanakis, G., & Iamnitchi, A. (2025). Influencer self-disclosure practices on Instagram: A multi-country longitudinal study. Online Social Networks and Media, 45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.osnem.2024.100298


 


 

Bleyer-Simon, K. (2024). (De)monetisation of disinformation: Can the actions of large online platforms be measured? Center for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom. https://cmpf.eui.eu/demonetisation-of-disinformation/


 


 


 

boyd, d. (2026). Social media is now parasocial media.Social Media + Society,12(2).ahttps://doi.org/10.1177/20563051261437487">https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051261437487


 


 

Caplan, R. (2023). Networked platform governance: The construction of the democratic platform. International Journal of Communication,17, 3451–3472.


 


 


 

Christin, A., & Lu, Y. (2023). The influencer pay gap: Platform labor meets racial capitalism.New Media  & Society, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448231164995


 


 


 

Daniel, F., Bucher, L., Servida, G., & Gilman, R. (2025). Monetising misogyny: Engagement farming and the tactics behind incendiary online content.Global Network on Extremism and Technology. https://gnet-research.org/2025/12/17/monetising-misogyny-engagement-farming-and-the-tactics-behind-incendiary-online-content/


 


 

De Gregorio, G., & Goanta, C. (2022). The influencer republic: Monetizing political speech on social media.German Law Journal, 23(2), 204–225. https://doi.org/10.1017/glj.2022.15


 


 

Diaz Ruiz, C. (2025). Disinformation on digital media platforms: A market-shaping approach.New Media  & Society,27(4), 2188–2211. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448231207644


 


 

Duffy, B. E., Pinch, A., Sannon, S., & Sawey, M. (2021). The nested precarities of creative labor on social media.Social Media + Society,7(2).https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051211021368


 


 

Franco, R. S. (2026). “Controlling the keys to the Golden City”: The payment ecosystem and the regulation of adult webcamming and subscription-based fan platforms.New Media  & Society,28(2), 879–898. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241303465


 


 

Franco, R., & Webber, V. (2024). ‘This is fucking nuts’: The role of payment intermediaries in structuring precarity and dependencies in platformized sex work. Porn Studies, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2024.2393641


 


 

Gillespie, T. (2017). Regulation of and by Platforms. In J. Burgess, A. E. Marwick, & T. Poell, The SAGE Handbook of Social Media (pp. 417–456). SAGE.


 


 

Goanta, C., & Ranchordás, S. (2020). The regulation of social media influencers: An introduction. In C. Goanta  & S. Ranchordás (Eds.),The Regulation of Social Media Influencers. Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788978286.00008


 


 

Goanta, C., Zannettou, S., Kaushal, R., van de Kerkhof, J., Bertalgia, T., Annabell, T., Gui, H., Spankais, G., & Iamnitchi, A. (2025). The great data standoff: Researchers vs. platforms under the digital services act. arXiv. Available at: http://arxiv.org/ abs/2505.01122


 


 

Gorwa, R. (2019). The platform governance triangle: Conceptualising the informal regulation of online content. Internet Policy Review, 8(2). https://doi.org/10.14763/2019.2.1407


 


 

Graves, F. (2025). Upload complete: An introduction to creator economy law. Belmont Law Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5271442


 


 

Hallinan, B., Reynolds, C.,  & Rothenstein, O. (2024). Copyright callouts and the promise of creator-driven platform governance.Internet Policy Review,13(2).https://doi.org/10.14763/2024.2.1770


 


 

Hallinan, B., Reynolds, C., Scharlach, R., Theiler, D., Niv, N., Rothenstein, O., Knief, I., & Kuperberg, Y. (2025). Priorities and exclusions within Trust and Safety industry standards.New Media & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251357225


 


 

Herasimenka, A., Au, Y., George, A., Joynes-Burgess, K., Knuutila, A., Bright, J., & Howard, P. N. (2023). The political economy of digital profiteering: Communication resource mobilization by anti-vaccination actors. Journal of Communication, 73(2), 126–137. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqac043


 


 

Huang, Z.,  & Liu, D. (2025). Economics of social media fake accounts.Management Science, 71(10), 8865–8883.a https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.02616">https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.02616


 


 

Jokubauskaitė, E., Rieder, B., & Burkhardt, S. (2023). Winner-take-all? Visibility, availability, and heterogeneity on webcam sex platforms.Social Media + Society, 9(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051231214807


 


 

van de Kerkhof, J.,  & Goanta, C. (2024). Digital constitutionalism and consumer protection. In G. De Gregorio, O. Pollicino, & P. Valcke (Eds.),The Oxford Handbook of Digital Constitutionalism. Oxford University Press.


 


 

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Liu, J.,  & Yang, L. (2022). “Dual‐Track” platform governance on content: A comparative study between China and United States. Policy & Internet, 14(2), 304–323. https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.307


 


 

Nassar, H., Mallet, P., Alhassan, A., & Aljasmi, K. (2026). Regulating digital influencers: Legal accountability and commercial speech in the age of social media – a French model.Information & Communications Technology Law, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600834.2026.2636329


 


 

Poell, T., Duffy, B. E., B. Nieborg, D., Mutsvairo, B., Tse, T., Arriagada, A., De Kloet, J., & Sun, P. (2025). Global perspectives on platforms and cultural production.International Journal of Cultural Studies, 28, 3–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779241292736


 


 

Potts, J., & Rennie, E. (2019). Web3 and the creative industries: How blockchains are reshaping business models. In S. Cunningham & T. Flew (Eds.), A Research Agenda for Creative Industries. Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788118583.00013


 


 

Rio, V. (2025, April 28). Beyond content: Why monetization governance is the next frontier of tech policy. Tech Policy Press. https://www.techpolicy.press/beyond-content-why-monetization-governance-is-the-next-frontier-of-tech-policy/


 


 

Siapera, E. (2023). Alt tech and the public sphere: Exploring Bitchute as a political media infrastructure.European Journal of Communication, 38(5), 446–465. https://doi.org/10.1177/02673231231189041">https://doi.org/10.1177/02673231231189041


 


 

Shen, X., & Hallinan, B. (2024). Parasocial media: The mass production of intimacy on a Chinese pop idol mobile application. Platforms & Society, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/29768624241299954


 


 

Shepherd, I. (2026, January 12). Why the creator economy is now Wall Street ready. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ianshepherd/2026/01/12/why-the-creator-economy-is-now-wall-street-ready/


 


 

Struett, T., Sinnreich, A., Aufderheide, P., & Gehl, R. (2023). Can this platform survive? Governance challenges for the Fediverse. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4598303


 


 

Törnberg, P., & Rogers, R. (2026).Towards a post-social media studies. SocArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/6nue7_v1


 


 

Wu, Q., Sang, Y., Wang, D., & Lu, Z. (2023). Malicious selling strategies in livestream e-commerce: A case study of Alibaba’s Taobao and ByteDance’s TikTok.ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 30(3), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1145/3577199">https://doi.org/10.1145/3577199


 


 

Zhao, R., Diep, B., Pei, J., Yoon, D., Jurgens, D.,  & Zhu, J. (2025). Who reaps all the Superchats? A large-scale analysis of income inequality in virtual YouTuber livestreaming. Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3713877


 


 

Ørmen, J., Gregersen, A. L., Thorhauge, A. M., & Petersen, L. M. (2025). Perpetual precarity: Cycles of value extraction in the platformised multi-level marketing scheme. Platforms & Society, 2. https://doi.org/10.1177/29768624251335549