Our aim for this special issue is to bring a few novel approaches to platform governance which can be applicable to social media and other online platforms. The different scholars included in this issue approach social media governance through different lenses, and sometimes use different terminology (e.g., “platforms” vs. “technology firms” vs. “social media companies”). Yet the common thread is the importance of exploring new ideas for managing the social impact, good and bad, that these large players have in our society. Our hope is that this issue will spur as lively a conversation about these topics as we had at the mini conference at which each of these papers was presented. These papers reflect not only the ideas of their authors but also the feedback from the distinguished group of scholars convened to comment upon them. To make progress upon these ideas we will need a dedicated cohort of people willing to think about these problems in a different way. This issue represents our effort to create such a group.
Table of Contents
In a New Light: Social Media Governance Reconsidered
Sudhir Venkatesh, Tom Tyler, Tracey Meares & Farzaneh Badiei
Community Vitality as a Theory of Governance for Online Interaction
Farzaneh Badiei, Tracey Meares & Tom Tyler
Online Reputation Systems and the Thinning of Trust
Paolo Parigi & Dan Lainer-Vos
Internet Governance and Human Rights in a Minor Key: An Anthropological Perspective
Baron Pineda
Reimagining Social Media Governance: Harm, Accountability, and Repair
Sarita Schoenebeck & Lindsay Blackwell
Informational Quality Labeling on Social Media: In Defense of a Social Epistemology Strategy
John P. Wihbey, Matthew Kopec & Ronald Sandler
