Surveillance on Digital Platforms

Abstract

Revelations of surveillance practices like those of the National Security Agency or Cambridge Analytica have shown that the digital age is developing into an age of surveillance and that platforms significantly contribute to this development. As intermediaries between communication and business partners digital platforms enjoy a privileged position (Trottier 2011). This position is increasingly used for surveillance and manipulation of end users. End users are surveilled and manipulated on platforms by private corporations in regards to their choices as consumers, by political organizations in regards to their choices as part of the electorate or by regulatory agencies as participants in public discourse. While the digital platform becomes the dominant form for the provision of digital infrastructure and the most successful type of corporation in ever more markets, the need for a better understanding of platform surveillance grows. The panel addresses this need, by presenting both theoretical as well as empirical studies which further the understanding of surveillance on and by platforms in various ways. They show for example how automated take down notices have developed into a tool for oversight in public discourse, how the delegation of authority to digital platforms influences democratic accountability and how agency can be conceptualized in view of the multitude of actors involved in surveillance on platforms.