Policy Instrumentation in Platform Governance

Digital platforms present an ongoing governance challenge for governments across the world. It has proven difficult for governments to grasp digital platforms as objects of policy interventions because their opacity has prevented governments and citizens from obtaining basic information about their operations. In this paper we suggest that digital platforms present a new challenge for literature on policy instruments because the platforms themselves form the digital infrastructure for monitoring and enforcing policy. The challenge is compounded by AI, which is both used by platforms to govern their users and forms a distinct object of policy in platform governance. We argue that the data collection practices and algorithmic systems of digital platforms have become an indispensable part of policy instrumentation in platform governance. What we mean with policy instrumentation is the role of technologies, institutions, processes, and measurement practices that translate policy choices into practices (Lascoumes & Le Gales, 2007). We suggest that digital platforms matter for policy instrumentation in two distinct scenarios. The scenarios form a continuum between at least two governance styles: 1) digital platforms being allowed to design their private policy instrumentation though deliberate government inaction and 2) digital platforms being part of government policy instrumentation. We emphasise that Big Tech have considerable power over policy instrumentation in both of these governance styles. In the first scenario deliberate lack of government policies and the inefficiency of existing policies has allowed Big Tech to design their infrastructure, algorithms, and governing principles as they see fit. In this scenario Big Tech is free to decide the instrumentation of their own self-governing policies. We suggest that this has led to platforms engaging in private policy instrumentation. In the second scenario governments have policies to govern platforms, but the policies are weak or governments have no capabilities to enforce them. To enforce policy, governments must enter partnership with Big Tech, which makes the platforms part of government policy instrumentation. In this scenario governments rely on Big Tech for the tools and measurement techniques that are required for policy enforcement. We argue that to cope with the new challenges of policy instrumentation in platform governance, governments need to develop new policy capabilities to both design effective policies and overcome enforcement problems.