Platform governance¶
Platform governance encompasses the institutions, policies, and multi-stakeholder arrangements through which digital platforms are regulated and held accountable. This includes both formal (legal) regulation and informal arrangements involving platforms, states, civil society, and users.
Scope¶
Platform governance extends beyond content moderation to include questions of: - Corporate responsibility and accountability - User rights and data protection - Algorithmic transparency and explainability - Access and interoperability - Labor conditions in platform work
Governance models¶
Traditional regulation: Government-imposed rules enforced through law and financial penalties
Self-regulation: Industry-set standards with limited external oversight
Multi-stakeholder governance: Collaborative rule-setting and enforcement involving platforms, governments, civil society, and sometimes users; often informal and voluntary
Co-regulation: Hybrid arrangements where government sets frameworks but delegates enforcement to private or mixed-stakeholder bodies
Key papers¶
- The platform governance triangle: conceptualising the informal regulation of online content — applies governance triangle model to understand informal multi-stakeholder platform regulation; examines Facebook's Oversight Body and the Christchurch Call