Regulating Platforms

Digital Media and Society Series

by Terry Flew

We once thought of cyberspace as a borderless world. As the internet has become increasingly platformized, with a small number of technology giants that dominate the global digital economy, concerns about information monopolies, hateful online content, and the impact on media content creators and creative industries have become more marked. Consequently governments, politicians, and civil society are questioning how digital platforms can or should be regulated. In this up-to-the-minute study, Terry Flew engages with important questions surrounding platform regulation. Starting from the premise that governance is an inherent feature of digital platforms, he argues that the challenge is to develop the best frameworks for balancing external regulatory oversight with the internal governance practices of platform companies. The intersection of media policy, information policy, and economic policy is an important element of policy frameworks, as national authorities increasingly seek to engage with the power of global digital platforms. Lively and accessible, Regulating Platforms is a go-to text for students and scholars of media and communication.

256 pages, Hardcover

Published March 22, 2022

About the author

Terry Flew is Professor of Communication and Creative Industries at the Queensland University of Technology. He is the president of the International Communication Association, and the author of several books, including Understanding Global Media (Palgrave, 2018), and Media Economics (Palgrave, 2015), co-authored with Stuart Cunnningham and Adam Swift. He is currently at work on a book about regulating digital platforms.