Book Presentation: The Politics of Platform Regulation - How Governments Shape Online Content Moderation

Leading multinational technology companies like Alphabet, Meta, Twitter, TikTok, and Microsoft now operate sprawling, complex systems to govern online behavior. These technical and bureaucratic infrastructures, commonly termed "content moderation" or "trust and safety," were developed in an effort to keep illegal and harmful material—such as child abuse imagery, hate speech, and incitement to extremist violence—out of sight and out of mind. But recently, they have been mired with scandal, and increasingly are in the public crosshairs.

In his new book, The Politics of Platform Regulation, Robert Gorwa outlines how governments around the world are trying to shape the rapidly emerging space of online safety. The book presents findings from a 6+ year-long research project seeking to help us better understand the domestic and international politics that influence how, why, and when platform regulation comes into being. Through close process-tracing case studies of regulatory development in several key jurisdictions, fuelled by new policymaking documents obtained via freedom of information requests as well as dozens of interviews with employees at tech companies, regulators and elected officials, and stakeholders in civil society, the book weaves together theories from political science and international relations with the latest work on ‘platform governance’ in internet studies circles.  

The book presentation and discussion will be followed by a reception.  

• Welcome Remarks: Jeanette Hofmann (WZB)
• Discussants:  Professor Natali Helberger (University of Amsterdam) and Professor Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (University of Oxford)
• Moderation: Clara Iglesias Keller (Weizenbaum Institute and WZB)

The book is open access thanks to funds provided by the WZB and the Leibniz Open Monograph fund, and is available to download at https://academic.oup.com/book/56385

No registration needed.