Glossary of Platform Law and Policy Terms

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Glossary of Platform Law and Policy Terms icon

About the Glossary

This Glossary is a living document prepared originally by the “Glossary Working Group” of the IGF Coalition on Platform Responsibility, a multistakeholder group under the auspices of the UN Internet Governance Forum. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the United Nations Secretariat’s. Furthermore, the designations and terminology employed may not conform to United Nations practice and do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Organization.

The members of the working group are (in alphabetical order): Luca Belli, Vittorio Bertola, Yasmin Curzi de Mendonça, Giovanni De Gregorio, Rossana Ducato, Luã Fergus Oliveira da Cruz, Catalina Goanta, Tamara Gojkovic, Terri Harel, Cynthia Khoo, Stefan Kulk, Paddy Leerssen, Laila Neves Lorenzon, Chris Marsden, Enguerrand Marique, Michael Oghia, Milica Pesic, Courtney Radsch, Roxana Radu, Konstantinos Stylianou, Rolf H. Weber, Chris Wiersma, Richard Wingfield, Monika Zalnieriute and Nicolo Zingales.

1) Who can contribute?

We welcome and encourage the submission of authorial entries about platforms’ law and policy from anyone interested in the subject. Please notice that:

  • Authorial entries will be peer-reviewed by at least three members of the Working Group of the IGF Coalition on Platform Responsibility;
  • The peer-review will take into account (1) the relevance of the subject; (2) its pertinence regarding the global matter of the Glossary; and (3) the adequate format of the entry;
  • The editing of existing entries will be assessed and subjected to approval by the original authors;

2) How to contribute?

After registering as a contributor, one can perform three main actions to contribute to the Glossary: (a) Edit an existing entry; (b) Comment; or (c) Create a new entry.

The relevance and pertinence of the additional text to the general theme of the Glossary will be considered upon approval.

a) Editing an existing entry: After registering as a contributor, click on “New revision” on the top of the screen to open the Dashboard. The next step is to edit the entry. Please, check below how to format. After finishing the editing, click on “Submit revision“. Please, notice that the entry will only be updated on the website after the original author has accepted it. The editor’s name will be included in the footnotes.

b) Leaving a comment: If one does not wish to edit an entry but still wishes to contribute by adding some information or even by posing a question to the author(s), please register and feel free to leave a commentary in the “Comments” section, below the text.

c) Creating a new entry: If one wishes to author an entry to the Glossary, please register and click on “+New” and select “Post“. New entries should follow the established format (check below). After finishing, select “Publish“. The new entry will be peer-reviewed by at least three members of the DCPR Working Group before being officially published on the platform.

3) Format of the contribution

When editing or creating a new entry, one should follow the established text format. 

Font size and line-height should be kept as default.

References should follow the APA Style.

In order to include footnotes, type [ efn_note ]Reference[ /efn_note ] (without spaces). The footnote will appear automatically at the bottom of the text when it is submitted.

Example: (Extract from the entry “Hate Speech“)

“On the other side of the discussion, academics such as Mary-Anne Franks (2019) [ efn_note ]Franks, M. A. (2020). The Cult of the Constitution. Stanford University Press.[ /efn_note ] and Danielle Citron say that the debate around hate speech should be centred on how some groups in society are being historically silenced and are powerless against several violations – such as women, non-white men, and other minorities (Citron, 2014) [ efn_note ]Citron, Danielle. (2014). Hate Crimes in Cyberspace. Harvard University Press.[ /efn_note ]”.