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The dynamics of meaningful youth participation: Mapping the purpose of participation of Youth Dialogue on Internet Governance participants Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-18 Nadia Tjahja
This study investigates how youth are navigating the regional and global Internet governance spaces using the Pyramid of Participation framework as proposed by the author, which is built on Arnstein's ladder. By understanding how youth participate in these spaces, this study seeks to understand the dynamics of meaningful youth participation by using the Youth Dialogue on Internet Governance (YOUthDIG)
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Sanctions and infrastructural ideologies: Assessing the material shaping of EU digital sovereignty in response to the war in Ukraine Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-17 Niels ten Oever, Clement Perarnaud, John Kristoff, Moritz Müller, Max Resing, Arturo Filasto, Chris Kanich
In this paper, we interrogate the sanctions instated against Russian media by the European Union (EU) in response to Russia's aggression in Ukraine. We do this in three ways. First, we present the outcome of extensive network measurements that show the heterogeneous implementation of the sanctions in EU Member States. Second, we explain how the sanctions fit the EU's digital sovereignty agenda. And
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SAVE YOUR INTERNET! The persuasion work of YouTube in the controversy over EU's digital market directive Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-04 Madelen Riise, Heidrun Åm, Hendrik S. Spilker
The introduction of EU's Digital Market Directive, especially the so‐called Article 13, caused a lot of controversy. A varied assembly of actors protested, including Internet activists, academics, NGO's such as Wikipedia, and owners of platforms for user generated content. They feared regulations would stifle the distribution of user generated content. Much of the protests revolved around the hashtag
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Structuring different manifestations of misinformation for better policy development using a decision tree‐based approach Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-04 Olivia Hägle, Stephan Escher, Reinhard Heil, Jutta Jahnel
The spread of false and misleading information in digital communication spaces has enormous potential for harm in democratic societies, but has so far been insufficiently addressed by policy makers. This problem has been exacerbated by recent technological developments such as deepfakes. But deepfakes, fake news, and disinformation are only manifestations of misinformation. It is therefore essential
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Where are the ethical guidelines? Examining the governance of digital technologies and AI in Nigeria Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-04 Muhammed Alakitan, Ebenezer Makinde
The Nigerian government, under the administrations of Muhammadu Buhari (2015–2023) and Bola Tinubu (2023–2027), has made continued attempts to harness the opportunities of digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) to boost economic growth and development. However, these technologies have also raised ethical and security concerns within their production and usage, requiring regulatory policies
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Transparency as an empty signifier? Assessing transparency in EU and platform initiatives on online political advertising and actors Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-04 Trisha Meyer, Agnieszka Vetulani‐Cęgiel
This paper investigates how the European Union (EU) and online platforms operationalise ‘political advertising’ and ‘transparency’ in a context of ongoing political and policy debates on regulating online platforms. We compare ongoing EU policy initiatives (revised Code of Practice on Disinformation and Regulation on the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising) against platform policies
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Regulating influencers' commercial communication: No legislation, hardly any self‐regulation and policy recommendations Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-27 Cristina González‐Díaz, Natalia Quintas‐Froufe
Influencers are gaining remarkable ground. Their content‐creation abilities, their credibility and consumer identification all represent an added value in commercial communication. However, controversies have emerged regarding the contents they divulge, as it is not always easy to distinguish advertising communication in the contents they post. Standards and guidelines issued on the matter pursue such
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A legal cure for news choice overload: Regulating algorithms and AI with ‘light patterns’ to foster autonomy and democracy Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-27 Sacha Molitorisz
Despite an unprecedented abundance of news content, both news avoidance and dissatisfaction are rising. Blending journalism, philosophy and law scholarship, this paper argues that ‘news choice overload’ causes paralysis and poor outcomes as it transfers power to algorithms, thereby harming autonomy and, in turn, democracy. An analysis of Australian and European regulatory responses shows the need for
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The platform policy matrix: Promotion and regulation Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-21 Junic Kim, Shanghe Ahn
This study provides a comprehensive analysis of policy measures adopted by countries in response to the rapid growth of digital platforms, which significantly impact various sectors and national economies. It examines the delicate balance between regulation and innovation, offering nuanced policy recommendations. Central to this study is the introduction of the “Platform Policy Matrix,” a strategic
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Shedding light on transparency: A comprehensive study of state‐level transparency portals in Mexico Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-13 Javier Cifuentes‐Faura
The growing demand for transparency and accountability on the part of citizens has positioned governmental electronic portals as crucial elements in the promotion of democracy and citizen participation. Mexico has devised an approach to assess the transparency of State Transparency Portals, yielding an annual indicator and ranking. The objective of this paper is to examine the influence of economic
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Treating the symptoms or the disease? Analysing the UK Online Safety Act's approach to digital regulation Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-19 Victoria Nash, Lisa Felton
In recent years, the pace of Internet regulation around the world has quickened, with states increasingly confident that they can and should hold major platform companies to account. New laws have been developed to address the risks of digital technologies and law‐makers have drawn on familiar regulatory principles and legacy frameworks in addressing them. But the nature of the technologies and the
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Blame and obligation: The importance of libertarianism and political orientation in the public assessment of disinformation in the United States Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-08 Adrian Rauchfleisch, Andreas Jungherr
Disinformation concerns have heightened the importance of regulating content and speech in digital communication environments. Perceived risks have led to widespread public support for stricter control measures, even at the expense of individual speech rights. To better understand these preferences in the US context, we investigate public attitudes regarding blame for and obligation to address digital
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Bridging digital and knowledge divides: Concepts, frameworks and ethical concerns Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-05 Erik W. Kuiler
Since time immemorial, the hegemonic imposition of cultural and political power asymmetries has resulted in the de jure and de facto exclusion of certain groups from the common weal. Withe the introduction of digital information and communication technologies (ICT), the rifts between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have‐nots’ have expanded at nearly exponential rates. To provide an instrument for analysing the
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Deep fakes and the Artificial Intelligence Act—An important signal or a missed opportunity? Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-01 Mateusz Łabuz
The Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) adopted by the European Union might serve as a global regulatory reference point. Heated negotiations over the AI Act have shown that reconciling the interests of numerous stakeholders is not an easy task. As well as creating clear and precise rules that would enable implementing effective safeguards for citizens against the manipulative potential of technology
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A conceptual framework to explore considerations of the social implications in internet of things and smart city governance and policy: The case of Thailand Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-06-28 Yon Jung Choi, Lisa Kenney
Cities worldwide are increasingly turning to internet of things (IoT) and smart cities (SC) technologies to help address their needs and challenges. While many governments have developed smart city policies and plans, there is often a disproportionate focus on technological, digital, and economic aspects and a neglect for social implications like social justice, social equity, and social inclusion
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Quantifying water effluent violations and enforcement impacts using causal AI Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-06-28 Yingjie Wang, Dan Sobien, Ajay Kulkarni, Feras A. Batarseh
In the landscape of environmental governance, controlling water pollution through the regulation of point sources is vital as it preserves ecosystems, protects human health, ensures legal compliance, and fulfills global environmental responsibilities. Under the Clean Water Act, the integrated compliance information system monitors the compliance and enforcement status of facilities regulated by the
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Digitally skilled or digitally competent? Evaluating the impact of e‐Facilitation on young volunteers in Italy Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-06-27 Francesco Olivanti, Luca Gastaldi
e‐Facilitation services are one of the instruments employed by policymakers to foster digital inclusion. Literature has hypothesized several benefits stemming from these services, including positive effects on the tutors (e‐Facilitators) in terms of competences and employability. Our study takes advantage of a new e‐Facilitation program implemented in Italy—the Servizio Civile Digitale (SCD)—to assess
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Digital inclusion and the internet of things: Convenience and the choice‐compulsion continuum Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-06-27 Lisa M. Frehill
The internet of things (IoT) holds forth much promise and peril. IoT promises to increase efficiencies needed to solve wicked problems like climate change. However, IoT may also reinforce existing problems such as social inequalities long associated with the digital divide. Research about the digital divide has evolved greatly over the past few decades and this article examines recent trends in the
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Traversing the digital divide in concept and effect: Relative interpretations and orientations Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-06-26 Connie L. McNeely
This discussion offers a general framing and positioning statement for identifying and considering principal analytical dimensions and policy concerns in relation to the deep and persistent digital divide that marks today's increasingly digitalized world. The digital divide encompasses various socio‐technological inequalities and inequities apparent within and across different groups, organizations
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The responsibility to protect online: Lessons from R2P and the politics of Western‐Centricity in online harms regulation Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-06-20 Milica Stilinovic, Joanne Gray, Jonathon Hutchinson
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Can Facebook's community standards keep up with legal certainty? Content moderation governance under the pressure of the Digital Services Act Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-05-29 Mathieu Fasel, Sophie Weerts
Content moderation by social media companies is a challenge for regulators around the world. The European Union is trying to tackle this challenge with its Digital Services Act (DSA). Notably, Article 14 DSA aims to impose language requirements based on the principle of legal certainty to social media companies' terms and conditions, of which community standards (CS) are a part. The principle of legal
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Data justice in the “twin objective” of market and risk: How discrimination is formulated in EU's AI policy Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-05-29 Jędrzej Niklas, Lina Dencik
Based on a focus on artificial intelligence (AI) policy in the European Union (EU), we explore the dominant approach taken to data justice in policy. More specifically, we ask how the particular issue of discrimination is translated into policy goals and measures as a way to address prominent concerns about AI. Looking at the stage of policy formulation, we provide an analysis of the way (non) discrimination
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The (complex) effect of internet voting on turnout: Theoretical and methodological considerations Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-05-21 Daniel Stockemer, Michael Wigginton
The adoption of remote internet voting can be a rather complex reform. In theory and praxis, geographical units can either decide to adopt or not to adopt i‐voting. Those that adopt it can differ in the mode of i‐voting adoption (i.e., internet‐only voting, or also in‐person voting), and the timing of adoption (i.e., some geographical units might adopt it earlier than others). How does the decision
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Digital citizen participation in policy conflict and concord: Evaluation of a web‐based planning tool for railroad infrastructure Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-05-20 Ilana Schröder, Nils C. Bandelow
Infrastructure siting has been shown to lead to high contestation across political systems. To counteract this, policymaking has introduced participatory instruments that were recently supplemented by web‐based tools. Drawing on theoretical perspectives on policy conflict, this paper investigates how different conflict intensities reflected in public discourses can shape citizens' perceptions on the
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Does the level of e‐government affect value‐added tax collection? A study conducted among the European Union Member States Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-04-23 Hana Zídková, Markéta Arltová, Kateřina Josková
The digitalization of the economy and state administration are important economic research topics. This paper focuses on value‐added tax and its collection from the e‐government perspective, more precisely, the digitalization of tax administration. Research has examined the digitalization of tax collection and its effect on tax evasion only to a limited extent. Our paper examines the impact of the
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Mediated trust, the internet and artificial intelligence: Ideas, interests, institutions and futures Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-04-23 Terry Flew
This paper addresses the question of trust in communication, or mediated trust, with regard to the historical evolution of the Internet and, more recently, debates around the impacts of artificial intelligence (AI). At a conceptual level, it proposes a ‘Three I's’ framework of ideas, interests, and institutions as a way of understanding how and why current proposals for greater regulation of digital
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How harassment and hate speech policies have changed over time: Comparing Facebook, Twitter and Reddit (2005–2020) Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-04-23 Elizabeth Dubois, Anna Reepschlager
Social media platforms make choices about what content is and is not permissible on their platforms. For example, choices about if and how to deal with online harassment and hate speech are growing problems in many online settings. But these choices are often opaque, can vary from platform to platform, and can change over time with little notice. This study examines the ways Facebook, Twitter, and
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Parliament, petitions and pandemic: Conspiracism in Australia's federal e‐petitions system, 2020−2021 Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-03-27 Ben Lyall, Patrick Marple
During the COVID‐19 pandemic, some groups and individuals rearticulated state power through conspiracy theories. Despite their fringe status, conspiracy theory beliefs can directly animate citizen's engagements with institutions. Drawing on Barkun's ‘conventional’ and ‘stigmatised’ knowledge types, we analyse the appearance of conspiracism in citizen e‐petitions, and their rebuttal by government ministries
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Social imaginaries of digital technology in South Korea during the COVID‐19 pandemic Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-03-27 Kyong Yoon
This study examines common themes identified in discourses about digital technology–driven responses to COVID‐19 in South Korea. By examining how digital technology is represented and thematised in policy and news discourses, the study explores how particular modes of society and societal order are circulated and particular visions of the postpandemic society emerge. By employing the notion of social
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Data sovereignty: The next frontier for internet policy? Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-03-20 Jonathon Hutchinson, Milica Stilinovic, Joanne E. Gray
INTRODUCTION Our contemporary digital lives produce an overwhelmingly high level of data as part of the digital traces we leave behind from our everyday activities. These data traces are often under the operational jurisdiction of a blend of commercial, private and government operators whereby our control over the data generated through digital traces becomes an incredibly complex scenario. One area
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The unjust burden of digital inclusion for low‐income migrant parents Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-02-23 Tanya Notley, Abdul Aziz
There are significant digital inclusion disparities between low‐ and high‐income households across countries. Yet, there is a lack of in‐depth research about the relationship between digital and social participation in low‐income family households, especially in households facing multiple forms of disadvantage and discrimination due to language, cultural or literacy barriers. This article is based
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Core concerns: The need for a governance framework to protect global Internet infrastructure Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2024-01-18 Dennis Broeders, Arun Sukumar
The war in Ukraine has underscored the risks and threats to global Internet infrastructure from geopolitically motivated cyber operations. The Domain Name System and core protocols responsible for the routing, forwarding, and security of Internet traffic have been exploited by actors in Russia and Ukraine for denial-of-service attacks, surveillance, and censorship. Additionally, states have tried to
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Watering down the wine: European Union regulation of violent right-wing extremism content and the securitisation of new online spaces Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-12-04 Danielle Flonk, Richard McNeil-Willson
The regulation of violent right-wing extremist online content in the European Union is facing a conundrum. On the one hand, pressure to respond to concern over violent right-wing extremism (or VRWE, a term used by the European Union to refer to ‘far right’) has led to a push to develop a coherent European-wide response. On the one hand, this has led to a watering down or ‘loosening’ of the concept
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‘To say report it, well, it seems a little useless’: Evaluating Australians' expectations of online service providers and reducing online child sexual exploitation Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-11-28 Francis Maxwell, Michael Salter, Noam Peleg
Online service providers (OSPs) provide a range of opportunities for individuals to engage in online child sexual exploitation, including the production and distribution of child sexual abuse material. As the failings of opaque content moderation systems have become apparent, a range of states have proposed or implemented new regulatory measures, amidst ongoing debates over the legitimacy of state
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Moderating borderline content while respecting fundamental values Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-11-28 Stuart Macdonald, Katy Vaughan
As efforts to identify and remove online terrorist and violent extremist content have intensified, concern has also grown about so-called lawful but awful content. Various options have been touted for reducing the visibility of this borderline content, including removing it from search and recommendation algorithms, downranking it and redirecting those who search for it. This article contributes to
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Mandate to overblock? Understanding the impact of the European Union's Article 17 on copyright content moderation on YouTube Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-11-28 Daria Dergacheva, Christian Katzenbach
This article presents the results of a study measuring possible overblocking due to copyright moderation and changes in the diversity of cultural products supply on YouTube in two European Union (EU) member states comparable in size and population, Germany and France. Both have adopted Article 17 of the EU Copyright in the Digital Single Market (CDSM) Directive (CDSMD) but Germany was 5 months ahead
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Moderating manipulation: Demystifying extremist tactics for gaming the (regulatory) system Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-11-28 Ashley A. Mattheis, Ashton Kingdon
Due to its ease of scalability and broad applicability, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in platform management has gained prominence. This has led to widespread debates about the use of deplatforming as the default tool for repeated or severe violations of terms or service. But technologically deterministic approaches are not infallible and can be predictable based on their
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Recommending instead of taking down: YouTube hyperpartisan content promotion amid the Brazilian general elections Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-11-22 Rose Marie Santini, Débora Salles, Bruno Mattos
YouTube released a global commitment to reduce the spread of problematic content by actively recommending “trusted” news sources on their platform but did not disclose the criteria used to classify the reputation of channels and the list of trusted news sources favored by the company. We aim to understand the patterns of recommendation by YouTube's algorithm and identify what the platform classifies
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Effects of online citizen participation on legitimacy beliefs in local government. Evidence from a comparative study of online participation platforms in three German municipalities Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-11-09 Tobias Escher, Bastian Rottinghaus
In order to generate legitimacy for policies and political institutions, governments regularly involve citizens in the decision-making process, increasingly so via the Internet. This research investigates if online participation does indeed impact positively on legitimacy beliefs of those citizens engaging with the process, and which particular aspects of the participation process, the individual participants
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“Highly nuanced policy is very difficult to apply at scale”: Examining researcher account and content takedowns online Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-11-06 Aaron Y. Zelin
Since 2019, researchers examining, archiving, and collecting extremist and terrorist materials online have increasingly been taken offline. In part a consequence of the automation of content moderation by different technology companies and national governments calling for ever quicker takedowns. Based on an online survey of peers in the field, this research highlights that up to 60% of researchers
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Special issue: The (international) politics of content takedowns: Theory, practice, ethics Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-11-06 James Fitzgerald, Ayse D. Lokmanoglu
INTRODUCTION Content takedowns have emerged as a key regulatory pillar in the global fight against misinformation and extremism. Despite their increasing ubiquity as disruptive tools in political processes, however, their true efficacy remains up for debate. We “know,” for example, that takedowns had a strong disruptive effect on Islamic State-supporting networks from 2014 onwards (Conway et al., 2019)
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Countering online terrorist content: A social regulation approach Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-10-30 Amy-Louise Watkin
After a period of self-regulation, countries around the world began to implement regulations for the removal of terrorist content from tech platforms. However, much of this regulation has been criticised for a variety of reasons, most prominently for concerns of infringing free speech and creating unfair burdens for smaller platforms. In addition to this, regulation is heavily centred around content
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Content takedowns and activist organizing: Impact of social media content moderation on activists and organizing Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-10-26 Diane Jackson
Social media companies are increasingly transcending the offline sphere by shaping online discourse that has direct effects on offline outcomes. Recent polls have shown that as many as 70% of young people in the United States have used social media for information about political elections (Booth et al., 2020) and almost 30% of US adults have used social media to post about political and social issues
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Crowdfunding platforms as conduits for ideological struggle and extremism: On the need for greater regulation and digital constitutionalism Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-09-24 Matthew Wade, Stephanie A. Baker, Michael J. Walsh
Crowdfunding platforms remain understudied as conduits for ideological struggle. While other social media platforms may enable the expression of hateful and harmful ideas, crowdfunding can actively facilitate their enaction through financial support. In addressing such risks, crowdfunding platforms attempt to mitigate complicity but retain legitimacy. That is, ensuring their fundraising tools are not
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Website blocking in the European Union: Network interference from the perspective of Open Internet Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-09-19 Vasilis Ververis, Lucas Lasota, Tatiana Ermakova, Benjamin Fabian
By establishing an infrastructure for monitoring and blocking networks in accordance with European Union (EU) law on preventive measures against the spread of information, EU member states have also made it easier to block websites and services and monitor information. While relevant studies have documented Internet censorship in non-European countries, as well as the use of such infrastructures for
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Content moderation through removal of service: Content delivery networks and extremist websites Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-09-18 Seán Looney
Considerable attention has been paid by researchers to social media platforms, especially the ‘big companies’, and increasingly also messaging applications, and how effectively they moderate extremist and terrorist content on their services. Much less attention has yet been paid to if and how infrastructure and service providers, further down ‘the tech stack’, deal with extremism and terrorism. Content
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Follow to be followed: The centrality of MFAs in Twitter networks Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-09-11 Ilan Manor, Elad Segev
This article outlines three major features of the digital society (information sharing, a levelled-playing field, and reciprocal surveillance) and explores their manifestation in the field of diplomacy. The article analyzed the international network of 78 Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFAs) on Twitter during the critical period of its growth between 2014 and 2016. To explain why some MFAs follow or
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The cloud sovereignty nexus: How the European Union seeks to reverse strategic dependencies in its digital ecosystem Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-09-05 Filippo Gualtiero Blancato
How does the European Union balance the need to migrate data to the cloud with the imperative of reducing its dependence on foreign cloud providers? Cloud computing is a critical technology for the competitiveness of the European Union (EU) in the digital economy. This paper argues that the EU is adopting a host of regulatory requirements and industrial policy tools—which fall under the umbrella term
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The weaponization of platform governance: Mass reporting and algorithmic punishments in the creator economy Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-08-23 Colten Meisner
Amid wider discussions of online harassment on social media platforms, recent research has turned to the experiences of social media creators whose compulsory visibility renders them vulnerable to frequent attacks, ranging from persistent trolling to much more insidious, offline acts of violence. This study examines a contemporary form of harassment against social media creators known as “mass reporting
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Transitional affordances: A longitudinal mixed-method study on the context and effects of changing mode of online access Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-08-17 Teresa Correa, Isabel Pavez, Catalina Farías, Camila Henzi
As mobile-only use has increased over the last decade, research has found that mode of online access (mobile-only vs. mobile and computer use) is related to digital inequalities. Relying on the literature on affordances and digital inclusion, this study seeks to: (1) examine the effects of mode of access on the number of online activities, over time; and (2) understand how the context of transitioning
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Ready but irresponsible? Analysis of the Government Artificial Intelligence Readiness Index Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-08-16 Stany Nzobonimpa, Jean-François Savard
Many are the promises of artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithms. Governments around the world are increasingly investing in AI and multiple voices have touted this seemingly unmatched revolution. Better performance, cost reduction, efficient management, crime prediction, and prevention are but a few of the pledges of the AI era. While such promises are recognized, research shows that AI benefits
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Prospects of blockchain governance: Understanding key public values, principles, challenges, and opportunities Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-08-14 Maxat Kassen
The article elaborates on the potential of blockchain technology to transform governance in different sectors of economy. The research primarily relies on rich empirical data that have been collected from semistructured interviews and focus group studies with professional blockchain developers. In this regard, the article aims to answer the following questions: How could blockchain governance conceptually
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The News Media Bargaining Code: Impacts on Australian journalism one year on Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-08-14 Diana Bossio, Belinda Barnet
The Australian News Media Bargaining Code (NMBC) is the first successful legislative attempt to compel digital platforms to pay news media organisations for third party news content. This paper focuses on the NMBC after its first year to explore whether the Code was successful in meeting one of its publicly stated purposes; supporting public interest journalism. We argue that the Code delivered outcomes
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The success of e-participation. Learning lessons from Decide Madrid and We asked, You said, We did in Scotland Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-08-14 Sonia Royo, Benedetta Bellò, Lourdes Torres, James Downe
Electronic participation (e-participation) has grown across the world in recent decades and many governments offer a range of opportunities for e-participation. However, there is a lack of comparative analyses of successful initiatives, which can be useful in supporting subsequent adopters. This study identifies the best practices and areas for improvement of Decide Madrid and We asked, You said, We
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Support for misinformation regulation on social media: It is the perceived harm of misinformation that matters, not the perceived amount Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-08-14 Isabelle Freiling, Marlis Stubenvoll, Jörg Matthes
Responding to harmful content on social media, calls for regulations are coming up to break down the black boxes of social media platforms in handling misinformation. Examples are requiring cooperations with fact-checkers or the government stepping in. So far, there is a lack of knowledge about predictors of policy attitudes in the context of misinformation besides attitudes toward and perceptions
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Transparency for what purpose?: Designing outcomes-focused transparency tactics for digital platforms Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-08-14 Yinuo Geng
Transparency has long been held up as the solution to the societal harms caused by digital platforms' use of algorithms. However, what transparency means, how to create meaningful transparency, and what behaviors can be altered through transparency are all ambiguous legal and policy questions. This paper argues for beginning with clarifying the desired outcome (the “why”) before focusing on transparency
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What is an online political advert? An interrogation of conceptual challenges in the formation of digital policy response Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-07-31 Katharine Dommett, Junyan Zhu
Despite British and European policymakers' quest to regulate online political advertising, it is not clear what exactly constitutes an online political advert. As with many areas of digital governance, it is therefore necessary to impose definitional criteria, yet the process of doing so is by no means straightforward. Using qualitative interviews, we set out to clarify alternative routes for definition
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Promotion of hate speech by Spanish political actors on Twitter Policy & Internet (IF 4.1) Pub Date : 2023-07-31 Elias Said-Hung, Roberto Moreno-López, Daria Mottareale-Calvanese
By examining the messages published by Spanish political groups on Twitter, this paper seeks to identify the level and understanding of the type and use of hate speech within these groups’ discursive strategy. For this purpose, the topics of 60,209 tweets published between 1 September 2019 and 29 February 2020, by 16 political groups, leaders, and spokespersons of the Congress of Deputies in Spain