Platform Governance and the Rebuilding of Digital Trust

There is a growing debate worldwide about the political, economic and social power of digital platform companies that have become known as the FAANG: Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google. Public controversies such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal, online fake news, and alleged foreign influence in democratic elections through social media intersect with wider concerns about implciations for privacy and data security arising from what Shoshana Zuboff has termed ‘surveillance capitalism’. Public enquiries such as the ACCC Digital Platforms Inquiry point to cocners about the balance of power between digital platforms and advertisers, consumers and other media companies, and their effect on journalism and digital content production.

Drawing on a multidisciplinary team of researchers across the fields of communication and media studies, law and economics, this project considers the policy and regulation implications of conceiving these organisations as media companies, engaged in the public distribution of online content. It examines the shifting balance between government regulation and self-regulation, and national content regulation in an age of global digital platforms. It will provide new insights for media policy makers and regulators in rethinking content regulation in the public interest.

This project investigates the regulatory and policy implications of understanding global digital platforms as media companies. Responding to ongoing public concern about these companies’ self-management of online communication and social media, we evaluate regulatory approaches to mediating abusive, offensive, defamatory and potentially illegal digital content. This project will address these concerns by developing detailed recommendation for reform that can rebuild trust in digital platforms and social media environments.