The Politics of Digital Platforms

This dissertation explores how digital technology is creating new institutional forms that empower new actors and establish new venues of conflict and cooperation. Much existing work assumes that digital platforms are internally apolitical spaces whose actions and outputs can primarily be understood through their interactions with external actors, such as states, businesses, and international organizations. My dissertation, in contrast, shows that there is an important internal politics on digital platforms whereby users can profoundly shape the institutional characteristics of the platform, the success of the platform, and the external impact of the platform. I show how and why Wikipedia transformed from a dubious source of information in its early years to an increasingly reliable source over time. I explain this transformation with a novel theory of endogenous institutional change through population loss: losers in institutional conflicts become demotivated and leave the institution, thus giving their adversaries the ability to change the institution over time. The dissertation also investigates under what conditions states, businesses, and users successfully pressure digital platforms to change policies and content, finding that platforms are highly sensitive to the demands of users early in a platform’s life due to the threat of user revolts. Unless users alter the institutional architecture of the platform and lock in pro-user institutional characteristics early, the threat of user revolts becomes less consequential as the platform grows. As the platform increases the size and centrality of its network, it becomes more sensitive to pressures by businesses (through boycotts) and the state (through regulation).

Author

• Steinsson, Sverrir

Language

• English

Keyword

• Technology
• Science
• Internet
• Organizational theory
• Institutions
• Digital platforms

Date created

• 2024

Type of Work

• Dissertation

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Political Science

Degree

• Ph.D.

Advisor

• Finnemore, Martha

Committee Member(s)

• Farrell, Henry
• Downes, Alexander B

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/rj430552g