A Comparative Study on Rationales of Chinese and Western Platform Governance

Abstract

Digital platforms enhance economic exchange and social, cultural, and political communication. In terms of platform governance, Western democratic debates call for state intervention and user supervision with the premise of platform autonomy, despite the low enforcement efficiency. This paper introduces a non-western perspective to approach platform governance. Taking WeChat as an example, this paper analyzes the similarities and differences between the rationales of Chinese and Western platforms, gives insight into the advantages and disadvantages of different governance frameworks, and hopes to help Chinese and Western media policy makers to foresee possible future platform governance models.