"This book provides case studies on the strategies used by African governments in monitoring and controlling digital and social media, as well as the implications of such actions for claims about media freedom and freedom of expression. Further, the book examines the human rights challenges posed by
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state control and monitoring of digital and social media forms of communication. In the context of a digital surveillance state, it questions how digital and social media can possibly enhance the democratisation of both the communicative and political spaces. The book focuses on questions of censorship and control of digital and social media in ‘supposedly’ democratic societies. It discusses regulation and how governments have imposed their state power by ‘switching off’ the internet and blocking social media sites under the guise of national security and order maintenance." (Back cover)
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"This report is an invitation to grapple with the complex interplay between infrastructure, media systems, civil society, and public sector institutions. Our findings suggest that effective policy solutions must: acknowledge the historical, political, economic, and social forces that shape informati
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on flows and sociotechnical systems; develop holistic approaches that consider the entire ecosystem rather than isolated interventions; understand how data governance and AI systems fundamentally influence information production, dissemination, and consumption; use a wider array of authorities and policy tools to create legal, regulatory and normative frameworks that protect democratic values while empowering communities and individuals who are embedded in increasingly opaque sociotechnical systems. By exploring both individual-level phenomena and systemic dynamics, this report suggests how legislative, regulatory, competition, education and other public authorities as well as tech platforms and citizens themselves all have a role to play in cultivating information ecosystems where democracy can better thrive." (Foreword by Courtney Radsch, page v-vi)
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"The world’s information systems are arguably owned by American and Chinese companies. So far, studies on China’s globalising Internet adopt either monolith approach or fragmented approach, lacking a comprehensive image to capture the architecture of China’s global information systems. Critica
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lly adopting the metaphor of ‘platformisation tree’, this article maps China’s network of global platform ecosystems and identifies its main stakeholders, based on a 2022–2023 ethnography with Chinese tech personnel and venture capitalists in Shenzhen, Indonesia and Vietnam. It argues that China’s globalising Internet shows a triangulation of China, the US, and recipient countries. Similarly to how vines grow and spread using various climbing strategies, Chinese tech companies have developed their ecosystem of digital infrastructures, intermediary platforms, and sectional apps. However, they significantly depend on the GAFAM (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft)-led ecosystem, interact with their surroundings, and embed deeply into recipient countries’s digital geographies. This research provides a grounded, empirical perspective to the contemporary debate on China’s digital expansion, highlighting varying techno-mediated positionalities and socially driven innovation in the Global South. It contributes to the conceptualisation of ‘global platform ecosystems’ as a relational and ecological social technical system, situated within a dynamic integrity of ‘centre-periphery’, ‘onlineoffline’and ‘human-non-human’." (Abstract)
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"In this paper, we conceptualize platforms that aim at data integration and analysis as a distinct type of digital platform. Based on the existing literature on digital platforms in general, which so far did not engage with data integration and analysis platforms, we present a definition of data int
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egration and analysis platforms as a digital platform type in its own right. To emphasize the specificity of this platform type, we present a case example, Palantir Technologies, and highlight its structural characteristics and key technical features. The case study shows that data integration and analysis services should be understood as platforms, because like other platforms, they serve as modifiable digital infrastructures that bring together different parties and enable data-dependent interaction. It is especially important to understand data integration and analysis platforms as digital platforms because these platforms have their own politics and determine what happens on them, as we illustrate with regard to two important social values that are part of the data sovereignty of organizations: epistemic opacity and epistemic control. We conclude that it is time that platform research not only scrutinizes those technologies and companies that are visible to the eye of large numbers of end-users, but also those that operate in the dark." (Abstract)
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"Hopes that the growth of platform work in Africa will provide new opportunities for women’s employment have not yet been matched by empirical research. Based on a five-country survey of workers on 18 platforms across four sectors (ride-hailing, delivery, professional, microtasks), the research re
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ported here makes the first direct, systematic comparison of men’s and women’s experiences of platform work in multiple African countries. The paper finds an absence of specific gender differences across many core operational structures of platform work including general shortcomings related to social protection, contracts, human/algorithmic management and representation being experienced similarly by both men and women. However, the paper also finds that these processes occur within a wider gender-unequal context in which gendered norms skew the presence of men and women in different sectors, and in which wider exclusions encourage women into platform work but lead them to experience greater precarity and dependency than men on that work.´For example, women on average earn less than men because they work demonstrably fewer hours. This also limits the purported flexibility of platform work for women workers and denies them a pay premium to reflect their generally higher levels of education. While experienced by only a minority of women workers surveyed, gender-discriminatory cancellations, complaints and abuse were reported. The paper ends with recommendations for actions to address gender inequalities in platform work, and reflections on future research." (Abstract)
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"The fourth edition of the Greening Digital Companies: Monitoring Emissions and Climate Commitments report continues to track greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, energy use and climate commitments of 200 digital companies. It provides a critical foundation for setting science-based targets (SBTs), measu
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ring progress over time and addressing the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) role in tracking the environmental impact of the digital sector. As a driver of global innovation and economic growth, the digital sector is increasingly stepping up to its responsibilities in the low-carbon transition. Climate ambition is on the rise, with more companies setting emission reduction targets, increasing use of renewable energy and aligning with SBT frameworks. However, to fully realize this potential, persistent gaps in transparency, reporting and accountability must still be addressed as outlined in this report. The Greening Digital Companies report is based on the most recent full fiscal year for which consistent data can be obtained across all companies—currently 2023." (Executive summary)
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"Digital monopolies shape ever larger parts of our lives. The platforms are increasingly controlling the public formation of political opinion and at the same time abolishing our free market economy. Digital expert Martin Andree shows in detail how far the hostile takeover of our society by the tech
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giants has already progressed - and how we could reclaim the Internet." (Publisher description)
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"Das Versprechen der Digitalen Revolution ist die Heilserzählung unsererZeit. Dieses Buch erzählt eine andere Geschichte: Die des digitalen Kolonialismus. Statt physisches Land einzunehmen, erobern die heutigen Kolonialherren den digitalen Raum. Statt nach Gold und Diamanten lassen sie unter mensc
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henunwürdigen Bedingungen nach Rohstoffen graben, die wir für unsere Smartphones benötigen. Statt Sklaven beschäftigen sie Heere von Klickarbeiter:innen, die zu Niedriglöhnen in digitalen Sweatshops arbeiten, um soziale Netzwerke zu säubern oder vermeintlich Künstliche Intelligenz am Laufen zu halten. Der Kolonialismus von heute mag sich sauber und smart geben, doch eines ist gleich geblieben: Er beutet Mensch und Natur aus und kümmert sich nicht um gesellschaftliche Folgen vor Ort. Im Wettkampf der neuen Kolonialmächte ist Digitalpolitik längst zum Instrument geopolitischer Konflikte geworden - der Globale Süden gerät zwischen die Fronten." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"The terms ‘indices’ and ‘indicators’ may immediately cause eyelids to droop. How, then, might they serve to impassion publics and, ultimately, promote social change? This paper examines the extent to which indices and indicators can be considered communication tools for social movements and
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social change. The analysis is based on a 2018 evaluation of one index based in the United States – the Ranking Digital Rights Index, which assesses privacy and freedom of expression in the ICT space – and incorporates interviews with civil society stakeholders. Bringing theory from the fields of journalism and social movements together with the data from the evaluation, the findings suggest indices can serve as useful communication resources for social movements under certain circumstances. In particular, the analysis suggests three communication resources – legitimate information, newsworthy information, and flexible information – that human rights indices are most likely to provide." (Abstract)
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"This edition of the Special Collection on the Case Law of Freedom of Expression: Case law on content moderation and freedom of expression is an update of the 2023 Special Collection on content moderation and freedom of expression. It includes cases that have been added to the database in the period
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from July 2023 to August 2024. These new cases include jurisprudence from Brazil, regional European courts, Germany, Japan, India, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United States of America. The cases show a variety of court decisions on content moderation in different parts of the world. In particular, many new decisions about the moderation of (health) misinformation were added to the database. Thus, a new section dedicated to claims requesting the reinstatement of content or accounts, that were removed for allegedly violating misinformation policies, was added (Section II.1.c). Certainly, content moderation reflects current tensions in society. For example, most of the misinformation cases that deal with the falsehood of objective information concern health information during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cases about wrong—and often defamatory—information about individuals are not classified as “misinformation” cases for the purposes of this paper. They are part of a more general section about the removal or reinstatement of content, considering they are at the core of what content moderation has been dealing with for decades. While the law of many jurisdictions around the world penalizes defamation to some (strongly varying) degree, the issue of whether “merely” objectively wrong information should be unlawful is more contested. Thus, the balancing exercises of courts around the world—when dealing with private content moderation decisions in this realm—provide valuable insights." (Introduction)
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"If you're not paying for the product, then you are the product. In the past, colonialism was a landgrab of natural resources, exploitative labour and private property from developing countries. It made shiny promises to modernise and civilise, but actually sought to control. It made native populati
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ons sign contracts they didn't understand, and took resources just because they were there. Colonialism has not disappeared it has taken a new form. In the new world order where data is the new oil, big Tech companies are grabbing our most basic natural resources, our data, exploiting our labour and connections, and repackaging our information to control our views, track our movements, record our conversations and discriminate against us. They tell us this is for our own good, to build innovation and develop new technology. But in fact every time we unthinkingly click 'Accept' on Terms and Conditions, we allow our most personal information to kept indefinitely, repackaged by big Tech companies to control and exploit us for their own profit. This is the era of data colonialism. The new colonial landgrab is a datagrab. In this searing, cutting-edge guide, two leading global researchers and founders of the concept of data colonialism reveal how history can help us understand the emerging future, and how we can fight back." (Publisher description)
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"Plattformen konstruieren kulturelle Räume aus Kanälen, Memes, Videos, ‚lo-fi‘ Remixen, Cumbias und ‚piñatas‘. Diese Räume werden in der vorliegenden Studie literatur-, kultur- und medienwissenschaftlich betrachtet, wodurch sich transkulturelle und -mediale Perspektiven auf Konzepte wie
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Kultur und Nation eröffnen. Es werden Dynamiken und Akteure analysiert, welche die Räume der Plattformen auf der Ebene der Infrastruktur gestalten, und solche, die (web)-sprachlich-kulturell Communities und Genres produzieren. Sie reichen von bekannten Politikern und YouTubern bis hin zu indigenen Bewegungen in Mexiko. Die Akteure werden über die Figur des ‚señor YouTube‘, als anthropomorphisierter Uploadfilter, gefasst und als Repräsentationsformen untersucht. Die verschiedenen Dimensionen konvergieren in dieser Figur als gesellschaftliche Diskurse, soziokulturelle Räume und informationstechnische Systeme sowie lokalisieren Mexiko in den Welten der Plattformen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Drawing from rich ethnographic materials and perspectives from both the Global North and South, authors Tiziano Bonini and Emiliano Treré explore how people appropriate and reconfigure algorithms to pursue their objectives in three domains of everyday life: gig work, cultural industries, and polit
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ics. They reveal how forms of algorithmic agency and resistance are endemic and mundane and how the platform society is a contested battleground of contrasting forces. Bonini and Treré begin by outlining their key theoretical framework of moral economies. This framework argues that algorithms exist on a continuum. At its two extremes are two competing moral economies: the user moral economy and the platform moral economy. From here, Algorithms of Resistance chronicles the various inventive ways that individuals can work to achieve agency and resist the ubiquitous power of algorithms." (Publisher description)
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"The majority of scholarship on platform governance focuses on for-profit, corporate social media with highly centralized network structures. Instead, we show how non-centralized platform governance functions in the Mastodon social network. Through an analysis of survey data, Github and Discourse de
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veloper discussions, Mastodon Codes of Conduct, and participant observations, we argue Mastodon’s platform governance is an exemplar of the covenant, a key concept from federalist political theory. We contrast Mastodon’s covenantal federalism platform governance with the contractual form used by corporate social media. We also use covenantal federalist theory to explain how Mastodon’s users, administrators, and developers justify revoking or denying membership in the federation. In doing so, this study sheds new light on the innovations in platform governance that go beyond the corporate/alt-right platform dichotomy." (Abstract)
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"This book addresses the issues raised by digital platforms in the Global South, with an emphasis on the cultural stakes involved. It brings together an interdisciplinary team of researchers - including political economists, socio-economists, geographers, media sociologists or anthropologists - who
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each explore these issues through an insightful case study at a local, national, regional or international scale. While studying the strategies of some of the main US-based Big Tech platforms or video streaming platforms towards the Global South, the chapters also consider the often-neglected active role local or regional actors play in the expansion of those Western digital players, and highlight the existence of a constellation of local or regional platforms that have emerged in Africa, Asia, Latin America or the Middle East. In addition to analysing the complex relationships of competition, collaboration or dependence between these diverse actors, this volume examines the ways in which the rise of these digital platforms has generated new forms of cultural entrepreneurship and participated in the reconfiguring of the conditions in which cultural contents are produced and circulated in the Global South." (Publisher description)
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"Dieser Report bietet einen Überblick über die im NOTORIOUS Projekt entwickelten und angewandten Methoden und Strategien zur Erhebung und Analyse von Mehrplattform-Social-Media-Daten mit einem Schwerpunkt auf der Aufdeckung von Desinformationsnarrativen. Zur Datensammlung erwiesen sich explorative
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Ansätze, basierend auf Akteur*innen, Inhalten und extern verlinkten Inhalten als notwendig und wurden entsprechend entwickelt und implementiert. Zur Datenaufbereitung und -analyse liegen die Vorteile der von uns entwickelten und vorgestellten Daten-Analyse-Methoden in ihrer Fähigkeit mit vergleichbar geringem Konfigurations-Aufwand, ausreichender Validität und hoher Effizienz große Textmengen zu verarbeiten und komplexe semantische Beziehungen zu erfassen. Hier hat sich die Verwendung semantischer Einbettungen von Texten als sehr effektiv herausgestellt, um Themen und Themenströmungen zu identifizieren. Auch die Erstellung von Ähnlichkeitsnetzwerken aus semantischen Einbettungen erwies sich als leistungsfähige Methode zur Visualisierung der Beziehung zwischen Themen und Akteur*innen. Semantische Ähnlichkeitsnetzwerke ermöglichten darüber hinaus eine Komplexitätsreduktion für Analyst*innen durch die Identifizierung von Clustern, die wir über einen semantischen Abgleich mit Fact-Check-Datenbanken mit bestimmten Desinformationsnarrativen in Verbindung bringen konnten. Mögliche zukünftige Entwicklungen basierend auf unseren Erkenntnissen sind die Integration multimodaler Ansätze und die Erschließung weiterer Datenquellen im Sinne einer kontinuierlichen Verbesserung der Erkennung und Bekämpfung von Desinformation." (Zusammenfassung)
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