Robert Gorwa
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View article: The Great Sysop: Elon Musk, X, and the Emergence of Platform Illiberalism
The Great Sysop: Elon Musk, X, and the Emergence of Platform Illiberalism Open
This article examines Twitter’s mutation into X under Elon Musk, analyzing its shift from a mainstream platform to a far-right-aligned space. Using a dataset of over 1,500 events related to this transformation and a novel conceptualization…
View article: Real Time Threats: Analysis of Trust and Safety Practices for Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (CSEA) Prevention on Livestreaming Platforms
Real Time Threats: Analysis of Trust and Safety Practices for Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (CSEA) Prevention on Livestreaming Platforms Open
In recent years, a range of new online services have emerged that facilitate the ‘livestreaming’ of real-time video and audio. Through these tools, users and content creators around the world can easily broadcast their activities to potent…
View article: Moderating model marketplaces: platform governance puzzles for AI intermediaries
Moderating model marketplaces: platform governance puzzles for AI intermediaries Open
The AI development community is increasingly making use of hosting intermediaries, such as Hugging Face, which provide easy access to user-uploaded models and training data. These model marketplaces lower technical deployment barriers for …
View article: Platform lobbying: Policy influence strategies and the EU's Digital Services Act
Platform lobbying: Policy influence strategies and the EU's Digital Services Act Open
This paper examines how platform companies seek to lobby and otherwise influence policymakers during heated regulatory episodes. While there has been some valuable recent work on different policy influence strategies deployed by platform f…
View article: From Coast to Coast
From Coast to Coast Open
This final case study chapter explores the recent United States context. It shows how state-level policy entrepreneurs, bolstered by a rising and revisionist coalition of conservative anti-tech interest groups, were motivated by Trump’s de…
View article: The Politics of Platform Regulation
The Politics of Platform Regulation Open
As digital platforms have become more integral to not just how we live, but also to how we do politics, the rules governing online expression, behavior, and interaction created by large multinational technology firms—popularly termed ‘cont…
View article: Copyright Page
Copyright Page Open
Subject Political Economy Comparative Politics Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
View article: Regulating Platform Companies
Regulating Platform Companies Open
This chapter offers historical analysis of some of the most important platform-oriented regulatory efforts, specifically as they pertain to three of the platform types laid out in the previous chapter: marketplaces, feed-based social netwo…
View article: Methods Appendix
Methods Appendix Open
Subject Political Economy Comparative Politics Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
View article: Conclusion
Conclusion Open
The concluding chapter summarizes the main findings from the book’s case studies. It suggests some promising avenues for future research informed by regulatory politics sensibility (including ideas about new dataset creation, case studies,…
View article: Governance by Platforms
Governance by Platforms Open
This chapter seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of the relevant literature that this book contributes to, discussing emerging work on governance in digital media, political communication, and `internet studies’ circles, as well as t…
View article: Explaining Government Intervention in Content Moderation
Explaining Government Intervention in Content Moderation Open
This chapter outlines the book’s theoretical framework. The key question it seeks to answer is: how do we explain the variation in different strategies of platform regulation, and why are governments able to foster policy change in some ca…
View article: After Christchurch
After Christchurch Open
This chapter discusses the diverging regulatory responses of Australia and New Zealand in the aftermath of the March 2019 Christchurch attack. It discusses how Australia quickly passed the Sharing of Abhorrent Violent Material Act, a muscu…
View article: Introduction
Introduction Open
This chapter begins by defining key terms—platform governance, content moderation, and platform regulation. It outlines the book’s core research questions (understanding the factors informing why platform regulation emerges under certain c…
View article: ‘What Is Illegal Offline, Should Be Illegal Online’
‘What Is Illegal Offline, Should Be Illegal Online’ Open
This chapter provides a detailed exploration of the development of the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG). A content moderation-related legal framework passed by the German Bundestag in 2017, the NetzDG has become infamous as the world’s fir…
View article: Notes
Notes Open
Subject Political Economy Comparative Politics Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
View article: Platform Regulation and the Majority World
Platform Regulation and the Majority World Open
This chapter looks beyond Europe, North America, and Oceania to provide a snapshot of the platform regulation landscape in three crucial countries for the future of global platform politics: China, India, and Brazil. Drawing on the work of…
View article: Regulatory Context Appendix
Regulatory Context Appendix Open
Subject Political Economy Comparative Politics Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
View article: Lessons in resilience: Canada's Digital Media Ecosystem and the 2019 Election
Lessons in resilience: Canada's Digital Media Ecosystem and the 2019 Election Open
Researchers, policy-makers and the public at large are paying more attention to the threats that disinformation and other forms of online media manipulation pose to democratic institutions and political life. Starting with the Brexit refer…
View article: Moderating Model Marketplaces: Platform Governance Puzzles for AI Intermediaries
Moderating Model Marketplaces: Platform Governance Puzzles for AI Intermediaries Open
The AI development community is increasingly making use of hosting intermediaries such as Hugging Face provide easy access to user-uploaded models and training data. These model marketplaces lower technical deployment barriers for hundreds…
View article: Moderating Model Marketplaces: Platform Governance Puzzles for AI Intermediaries
Moderating Model Marketplaces: Platform Governance Puzzles for AI Intermediaries Open
Cite as: Robert Gorwa and Michael Veale, 2024. `Moderating Model Marketplaces: Platform Governance Puzzles for AI Intermediaries.' Law, Innovation and Technology 16 (2). (First uploaded as a preprint November 2023.) The AI development comm…
View article: What is Platform Governance?
What is Platform Governance? Open
Following a host of high-profile scandals, the political influence of platform companies (the global corporations that that operate online ‘platforms’ such as Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, and many other online services) is slowly being re-…
View article: AI and Global Governance: Modalities, Rationales, Tensions
AI and Global Governance: Modalities, Rationales, Tensions Open
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a salient but polarizing issue of recent times. Actors around the world are engaged in building a governance regime around it. What exactly the “it” is that is being governed, how, by who, and why—these are …
View article: AI and Global Governance: Modalities, Rationales, Tensions
AI and Global Governance: Modalities, Rationales, Tensions Open
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a salient but polarizing issue of recent times. Actors around the world are engaged in building a governance regime around it. What exactly the “it” is that is being governed, how, by who, and why—these are …
View article: Who Are the Stakeholders in Platform Governance?
Who Are the Stakeholders in Platform Governance? Open
The goal of this essay is to more systemically explore the key actors involved in platform governance than has been done so far. What exactly does it mean to be a “governance stakeholder” — and how does it matter for our frames of analysis…
View article: Elections, Institutions, and the Regulatory Politics of Platform Governance: The Case of the German NetzDG
Elections, Institutions, and the Regulatory Politics of Platform Governance: The Case of the German NetzDG Open
Policy proposals for higher rules and standards governing how major user- generated content platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube moderate socially problematic content have become increasingly prevalent since the negotiation of the…
View article: Expanding the debate about content moderation: Scholarly research agendas for the coming policy debates
Expanding the debate about content moderation: Scholarly research agendas for the coming policy debates Open
Content moderation has exploded as a policy, advocacy, and public concern. But these debates still tend to be driven by high-profile incidents and to focus on the largest, US based platforms. In order to contribute to informed policymaking…
View article: THE TURN TO TRADE AGREEMENTS IN GLOBAL PLATFORM GOVERNANCE
THE TURN TO TRADE AGREEMENTS IN GLOBAL PLATFORM GOVERNANCE Open
In the past few years, a growing number of proposals have been developed to govern major platforms for user-generated content through formalized legislation as well as voluntary self-regulatory initiatives. This paper focusses on the incre…
View article: THE STATE OF GLOBAL HARMFUL CONTENT REGULATION: EMPIRICALOBSERVATIONS
THE STATE OF GLOBAL HARMFUL CONTENT REGULATION: EMPIRICALOBSERVATIONS Open
Online intermediaries have always been regulated, locked in heated battles around intermediary liability for copyright or privacy reasons (Tusikov, 2016; Gorwa 2019). But a notable trend is the rapidly growing use of policy to try and gove…