The Political Economy of Content Moderation

The various disciplines of platform studies have produced diverging accounts as to why platforms moderate user content, pointing to a variety of commercial, legal and technical considerations. Still lacking, however, is sustained attention for the political-economic organisation of moderation. Drawing on Critical Political Economy of the Media (CPEM), this presentation outlines a research agenda for the political-economic analysis of content moderation at three levels: (1) the platform firm and ownership influence; (2) platform markets and advertiser influence; and (3) the state and platform regulation. It reviews existing contributions from Platform Studies and identify gaps for further research, such as firm-level ownership and management structures; market-level competitive dynamics and advertiser switching behaviour; and extralegal ‘flak’ or jawboning interactions. This critical research agenda aims to complement existing moderation scholarship, with its typical focus on the voluntaristic and expert-driven multistakeholder exchanges, by centering issues of economic power and inequality that push platforms to moderate to the benefit of dominant societal interests.

Paddy Leerssen is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam’s Institute for Information Law (IViR). His research focuses on platform law and governance, with a particular focus on questions of transparency, accountability and data access. As part of the IViR's Digital Services Act Observatory, he monitors the implementation and enforcement of the EU’s new regulatory framework for online platforms.

The event is part of the Seminar Series “Platform Politics and Policy”.

Researchers from outside the WZB who would like to attend may email the organizer, robert.gorwa [at] wzb.eu, to be put onto the seminar series mailing list.