This article seeks to understand why so little is known about the nature and extent of ‘fake or spam accounts’ across the leading social media companies, why this lack of knowledge is even greater outside the companies themselves and the implications of this epistemic uncertainty. It concludes that authorities, investors and the public should not be solely reliant on the companies for user account figures, and that there is a need for regular, independent, external audits of inauthentic accounts on social media.
{"title":"Fake accounts on social media, epistemic uncertainty and the need for an independent auditing of accounts","authors":"Martin Moore","doi":"10.14763/2023.1.1680","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14763/2023.1.1680","url":null,"abstract":"This article seeks to understand why so little is known about the nature and extent of ‘fake or spam accounts’ across the leading social media companies, why this lack of knowledge is even greater outside the companies themselves and the implications of this epistemic uncertainty. It concludes that authorities, investors and the public should not be solely reliant on the companies for user account figures, and that there is a need for regular, independent, external audits of inauthentic accounts on social media.","PeriodicalId":45799,"journal":{"name":"Internet Policy Review","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66622219","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
There has been much concern that social media, in particular YouTube, may facilitate radicalisation and polarisation of online audiences. This systematic review aimed to determine whether the YouTube recommender system facilitates pathways to problematic content such as extremist or radicalising material. The review conducted a narrative synthesis of the papers in this area. It assessed the eligibility of 1,187 studies and excluded studies using the PRISMA process for systematic reviews, leaving a final sample of 23 studies. Overall, 14 studies implicated the YouTube recommender system in facilitating problematic content pathways, seven produced mixed results, and two did not implicate the recommender system. The review's findings indicate that the YouTube recommender system could lead users to problematic content. However, due to limited access and an incomplete understanding of the YouTube recommender system, the models built by researchers might not reflect the actual mechanisms underlying the YouTube recommender system and pathways to problematic content.
{"title":"Systematic review: YouTube recommendations and problematic content.","authors":"Muhsin Yesilada, Stephan Lewandowsky","doi":"10.14763/2022.1.1652","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14763/2022.1.1652","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>There has been much concern that social media, in particular YouTube, may facilitate radicalisation and polarisation of online audiences. This systematic review aimed to determine whether the YouTube recommender system facilitates pathways to problematic content such as extremist or radicalising material. The review conducted a narrative synthesis of the papers in this area. It assessed the eligibility of 1,187 studies and excluded studies using the PRISMA process for systematic reviews, leaving a final sample of 23 studies. Overall, 14 studies implicated the YouTube recommender system in facilitating problematic content pathways, seven produced mixed results, and two did not implicate the recommender system. The review's findings indicate that the YouTube recommender system could lead users to problematic content. However, due to limited access and an incomplete understanding of the YouTube recommender system, the models built by researchers might not reflect the actual mechanisms underlying the YouTube recommender system and pathways to problematic content.</p>","PeriodicalId":45799,"journal":{"name":"Internet Policy Review","volume":"11 1","pages":"1652"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7613872/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"35208463","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Visibility layers: a framework for systematising the gender gap in Wikipedia content","authors":"Pablo Beytía,Claudia Wagner","doi":"10.14763/2022.1.1621","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14763/2022.1.1621","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45799,"journal":{"name":"Internet Policy Review","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138517076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
: What kind of social contract underwrites platform capitalism? Based on findings from the Platform Labor research project, I discuss a number of ways in which platform companies are expanding their services and influence by identifying particular societal needs and marketing themselves as efficient solutions to workers, citizens and civil society organisations, as well as local governments. I argue that we are seeing the emergence of different gendered “platform fixes”, connected to other types of “fixes” that have sought to overcome the limits of capital accumulation and attendant crises of social reproduction. The three platform fixes discussed in this essay each attempt to revise and rearticulate elements of the nation state’s social contract, operating at the urban level: 1) Channeling migrant labour into on-demand domestic work; 2) Coordinating civil society’s “altruistic surplus” to deliver social care; and 3) Promoting “home-sharing” as a way to finance the rising costs of social reproduction.
{"title":"Platform capitalism's social contract","authors":"N. Doorn","doi":"10.14763/2022.1.1625","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14763/2022.1.1625","url":null,"abstract":": What kind of social contract underwrites platform capitalism? Based on findings from the Platform Labor research project, I discuss a number of ways in which platform companies are expanding their services and influence by identifying particular societal needs and marketing themselves as efficient solutions to workers, citizens and civil society organisations, as well as local governments. I argue that we are seeing the emergence of different gendered “platform fixes”, connected to other types of “fixes” that have sought to overcome the limits of capital accumulation and attendant crises of social reproduction. The three platform fixes discussed in this essay each attempt to revise and rearticulate elements of the nation state’s social contract, operating at the urban level: 1) Channeling migrant labour into on-demand domestic work; 2) Coordinating civil society’s “altruistic surplus” to deliver social care; and 3) Promoting “home-sharing” as a way to finance the rising costs of social reproduction.","PeriodicalId":45799,"journal":{"name":"Internet Policy Review","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66622150","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Towards responsible, lawful and ethical data processing: patient data in the UK","authors":"Tess Johnson, Konrad Kollnig, Pierre Dewitte","doi":"10.14763/2022.1.1638","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14763/2022.1.1638","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45799,"journal":{"name":"Internet Policy Review","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45782670","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Francisco Javier Moreno Gálvez, Francisco Sierra Caballero
{"title":"Social appropriation of new technologies","authors":"Francisco Javier Moreno Gálvez, Francisco Sierra Caballero","doi":"10.14763/2022.1.1647","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14763/2022.1.1647","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45799,"journal":{"name":"Internet Policy Review","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66622202","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Feminist policy and platform economy: insights, methods and challenges","authors":"S. R. García","doi":"10.14763/2022.1.1633","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14763/2022.1.1633","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45799,"journal":{"name":"Internet Policy Review","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66622163","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The gender of the platform economy","authors":"M. F. Morell","doi":"10.14763/2022.1.1620","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14763/2022.1.1620","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45799,"journal":{"name":"Internet Policy Review","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66622128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We examine and compare data and privacy governance by four China-based mobile applications and their international versions: Baidu, Toutiao and its international version TopBuzz, Douyin and its international version TikTok, and WeChat. Together, these four applications represent popular Chinese apps branching into diverse overseas markets such as Europe, Brazil, North America, and Southeast Asia. We first present an overview of the ownership, functions, business models and strategies of the reviewed apps. To study the app's interface design, we employ the walkthrough method to examine privacy features during the account registration and deletion stages in app usage. Lastly, we conducted content analysis of the terms of service and privacy policies to establish the app's data collection, storage, transfer, use, and disclosure measures. Our analysis showed variations across apps and within the Chinese and international-facing versions in their data and privacy governance in app design and policies. Baidu has the most unsatisfactory data and privacy protection measures, while ByteDance's TikTok/Douyin and TopBuzz/Toutiao offer more comprehensive user protection from different jurisdictions. Moreover, this paper highlights the role of platform owners (e.g., Google and Apple) in gatekeeping mobile app privacy standards and the role of the state in imposing a data protection framework on overseas versions of China-based mobile apps.
{"title":"Going global: Comparing Chinese mobile applications’ data and user privacy governance at home and abroad","authors":"Lianrui Jia, Lotus Ruan","doi":"10.14763/2020.3.1502","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14763/2020.3.1502","url":null,"abstract":"We examine and compare data and privacy governance by four China-based mobile applications and their international versions: Baidu, Toutiao and its international version TopBuzz, Douyin and its international version TikTok, and WeChat. Together, these four applications represent popular Chinese apps branching into diverse overseas markets such as Europe, Brazil, North America, and Southeast Asia. We first present an overview of the ownership, functions, business models and strategies of the reviewed apps. To study the app's interface design, we employ the walkthrough method to examine privacy features during the account registration and deletion stages in app usage. Lastly, we conducted content analysis of the terms of service and privacy policies to establish the app's data collection, storage, transfer, use, and disclosure measures. Our analysis showed variations across apps and within the Chinese and international-facing versions in their data and privacy governance in app design and policies. Baidu has the most unsatisfactory data and privacy protection measures, while ByteDance's TikTok/Douyin and TopBuzz/Toutiao offer more comprehensive user protection from different jurisdictions. Moreover, this paper highlights the role of platform owners (e.g., Google and Apple) in gatekeeping mobile app privacy standards and the role of the state in imposing a data protection framework on overseas versions of China-based mobile apps.","PeriodicalId":45799,"journal":{"name":"Internet Policy Review","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2020-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46735347","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}