Author: Paddy Leerssen The concept of governance refers to a ‘decentered’ perspective on regulation, which does not emanate solely from the state but is instead carried out by (complex, interactive) constellations of public and private stakeholders. The term has found widespread usage in the context of platforms, which are often seen to play an influential role as… Continue reading Platform Governance
Glossary of Platform Law and Policy Terms
Paddy Leerssen
Paddy Leerssen is a PhD Candidate in information law at the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on the regulation and governance of social media platforms, with a particular focus on transparency and data access.
Microtargeting
Author: Paddy Leerssen Targeting is a practice whereby online content, typically advertising content, is distributed towards particular audiences based on their personal data. In the words of William Gorton, microtargeting involves “creating finely honed messages targeted at narrow categories of voters’ based on data analysis ‘garnered from individuals’ demographic characteristics and consumer and lifestyle” (Gorton,… Continue reading Microtargeting
Governance
Author: Paddy Leerssen The concept of governance offers a ‘decentered’ perspective on regulation, which does not emanate solely from the state but instead emerges from (complex, interactive) constellations of public and private stakeholders. In the words of Julia Black, “‘[g]overnance’ is a much-debated term, but most definitions revolve around the observation that both public and… Continue reading Governance
Content curation
Author: Paddy Leersen In the context of online services, ‘content curation’ refers to the selection of relevant content from a larger subset of available content. Thorson and Wells (2016) define curation as the “production, selection, filtering, annotation or framing of content”. In the modern environment of information abundance, curation fulfils an essential function. According to Thorson… Continue reading Content curation
Amplification
Author: Paddy Leerssen In the context of platform governance, ‘amplification’ refers to actions (typically by platforms) that magnify the visibility or reach of certain information. The phrase is most commonly used to refer to platform content recommendations and other algorithmic rankings, in cases where particular content is seen to be given an unfair or otherwise unwarranted… Continue reading Amplification