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.
News and Research articles on Platforms
A mixed method study of the EU geo-block's effectiveness in limiting sharing of Russian propaganda media and content in the wake of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Drawing from 33 elite interviews, this study develops a capacity-based approach to analyse the emergent regulatory system for online safety in the UK.
This article discusses national legislation applicable to disinformation, and the implications for EU policy and fundamental rights.
This paper investigates challenges arising for Value Sensitive Design due to the distribution of power in socio-technical ecosystems.
TikTok is at the centre of a geopolitical contest between the US and China. What can this platform controversy tell us about the future distribution of power in the digital environment?
How can platform policymaking advance developmental objectives given structural barriers? Case studies from Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Peru offer insights.
This article proposes the concept of platform observability to help systematically study complex algorithmic systems. It sets out three broad principles as guidelines for making platforms more accountable.
This article draws on case studies of two software development platforms, Unity and Twine, to unpack how the game development process both adheres to and challenges understandings of ‘platformisation’.
Content moderation has exploded as a public and a policy concern, but the debate remains too narrow. Nine experts suggest ways to expand it.
With online platforms in the sights of policymakers and regulators, we examine their power in the integrated platform ecosystem for video advertising.
Can platforms delete whatever content they want? Not everywhere, say the authors of this paper, which shows why certain social networks ‘must carry’ some content – and how users in some jurisdictions can force the companies to allow them into their communicative space.
This paper shows how platforms are transient in the policies, procedures, and affordances and details the implications for politics.
NationBuilder is a global, nonpartisan political technology firm that sells to anyone. Through a review of its use, this paper questions whether NationBuilder should sell to extremists, spammers or frauds.
What is platformisation? This article contextualises, defines, and operationalises the concept. Drawing insights from different scholarly perspectives on platforms it develops a comprehensive approach to this process.
Ad archives are a novel tool in online advertising governance. They promise significant benefits, but only if their operators address key criticisms.
This paper analyses the aftermath of the advertiser revolt on YouTube to draw out the broader implications of the controversy as it relates to the algorithmic gatekeeping of culture. It argues that the event shows as never before that decisions about categorisation and classification of cultural content invariably affect the financial trajectory of the said content. It ends by calling for broader stakeholder participation within key decision-making processes of digital platforms.
Why did China’s Alibaba platform reform its enforcement practices in line with demands from the US government and US companies?
What are the informal arrangements governing online content on platforms in Europe, and what are the factors that make them more or less successful?
Net neutrality consultations that tap into networked publics rest on a thin version of participation that maintains existing inequality.