{"title":"Social media governance and strategies to combat online hatespeech in Germany","authors":"Daniela Stockmann, Sophia Schlosser, Paxia Ksatryo","doi":"10.1002/poi3.348","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.348","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Concerns over online hatespeech have prompted governments to strengthen social media governance. However, claims by policy‐makers and political activists regarding the effectiveness and likely consequences of legal regulations remain largely untested. We rely on qualitative interviews and two expert surveys to examine the behavior of public relations professionals in response to online hatespeech when having the option of using the new user‐complaint mechanism under the German Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG). Our findings reveal that strategies depend on whether professionals work at public sector institutions, business, or civil society organizations and political parties. Public sector institutions are likely to report to the platform, but not under NetzDG. Civil society organizations are likely to choose content moderation, counterspeech, and other forms of intervention. Businesses deploy a wide range of strategies. In practice, Germany's procedural approach relying on user‐complaint mechanisms to deal with online hatespeech is not used by experts as a means to combat online harassment.","PeriodicalId":46894,"journal":{"name":"Policy and Internet","volume":"42 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135859748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Democracy in the digital era","authors":"Joanne Gray, Jonathon Hutchinson, Milica Stilinovic","doi":"10.1002/poi3.349","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.349","url":null,"abstract":"As Yochai Benkler identified almost two decades ago, the internet radically transformed “how we make the information environment we occupy as autonomous individuals, citizens and members of cultural and social groups” (Benkler, 2006, p. 1). This transformation has had critical implications for democratic social and political systems. Our information environment plays an important role in the “health” of a democracy because democratic governance is about more than casting and counting votes—it also involves socially and culturally informed preference formation (Bracha, 2006, p. 1845). According to cultural theory, democratic governance is supported by a culture in which all individuals have the opportunity to participate in social processes of meaning-making and access to diverse viewpoints (see, e.g., Balkin, 2015). In deliberative or participatory democracies, as they are sometimes termed (Pateman, 2012), informed citizens contend with a range of ideas and contribute to important public debates. In both theory and practice, the internet provides near-limitless opportunities for public debate, political deliberation, and participation in social processes of meaning-making. But has an increase in opportunities for cultural participation led to what Benkler and others identified as the “great promise” of the internet, that is, more freedom for democratic participation and human development? The evidence is mixed. With the uptake of social media platforms by billions of people, more than ever before, we are free to share our ideas with each other. Yet, there is also clear evidence that the internet and platform capitalism produces a range of harms to individuals and democratic governance. In previous issues of Policy & Internet, contributors to the journal have studied the problems of democracy in the internet era across a range of context and topics from misinformation to monopoly power, surveillance capitalism, authoritarianism, journalism, information warfare and, of course, the capacity of democratically elected lawmakers to respond with new policy in a timely and effective manner. From these contributions and others, we know that the democratic political process is directly undermined when political actors and foreign governments manipulate and, in some cases, weaponize the flow of information online to influence the outcome of elections (North et al., 2021; Yoon et al., 2022). We have also seen how the spread of misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories, the amplification of partisan voices, and the targeting of marginalized demographics weaken social cohesion by exacerbating societal divisions and eroding the trust that people have in one another, democratic institutions, and elections (Dobreva et al., 2020; Gruzd & Roy, 2014; Karlsson et al., 2021; Lee, 2020; Mena, 2020; Ng & Taeihagh, 2021). Authoritarianism, populism, and fascism in some corners of contemporary politics may also work to destabilization of democratic systems o","PeriodicalId":46894,"journal":{"name":"Policy and Internet","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135792823","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The public good and public attitudes toward data sharing through IoT","authors":"Karen Mossberger, Seongkyung Cho, Pauline Hope Cheong, Daria Kuznetsova","doi":"10.1002/poi3.343","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.343","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Internet of Things (IoT) has potential to deliver important benefits for IoT users, society and public good. How do citizens feel about sharing data from personal devices compared with “smart city” data collection in public spaces, with government and nongovernmental organizations, and across different situations? What predicts willingness to share their data with government? Through a nationally representative survey of over 2000 US respondents as well as interviews, we explore the willingness of citizens to share their data in various circumstances, using the contextual integrity framework, the literature on the “publicness” of organizations, and public value creation. Across different contexts, from half to 2/3 of survey respondents were willing to share data from their own IoT devices for public benefits, and 80%−93% supported the use of sensors in public places for a variety of collective purposes. Trust in government was significantly related to data sharing and support for smart city data collection. Yet government in the United States is less trusted with this data than other organizations with public purposes, such as nonprofits. Cultivating trust through transparent and responsible data stewardship will be important for future use of IoT data for public good.","PeriodicalId":46894,"journal":{"name":"Policy and Internet","volume":"128 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135189349","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Governing with health code: Standardising China's data network systems during COVID‐19","authors":"Yu Sun, W. Wang","doi":"10.1002/poi3.292","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.292","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Noting the infrastructural turn in platform studies, the article conceives China's health code system, Jian Kang Ma (JKM), deployed to manage the COVID‐19 crisis as a new social infrastructure that manifests the symbolic and material power of the Party State. Using the platform walkthrough method and documentary inquiry, we unpack the structures of platform governance and identify actors of the power to appreciate the socio‐political dynamics of platform algorithms. JKM's structural power is not monolithic in the name of the Party State but supports a process of structuration that operates across multiple actors, administrative bodies and, governing layers. JKM has centralised data systems through the building of a nationwide algorithmic standard of COVID‐19 governance. JKM typified the political dynamics of deterritorialisation, a reference to the state's governing mindset of eradicating local variants of policy implementation and governing autonomy in China. The removal of local power in pandemic administration has led to the production of a unified national subject. Such a comprehensive approach begs for greater nuance and sophisticated knowledge about those indigenous logics that platforms and algorithms operate and are embedded in, thus contributing to de‐westernising platform studies.","PeriodicalId":46894,"journal":{"name":"Policy and Internet","volume":"14 1","pages":"673 - 689"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2022-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48635329","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From content moderation to\u0000 visibility moderation\u0000 : A case study of platform governance on TikTok","authors":"Jing Zeng, D. Kaye","doi":"10.1002/poi3.287","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.287","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46894,"journal":{"name":"Policy and Internet","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2022-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43889582","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}