New CRC Working Paper on the technicity of platform governance published
How are application programming interfaces (APIs) tied into the power of and the governance by large digital platforms?
Based on empirical and evolutionary analysis, the authors of the new publication “The Technicity of Platform Governance – Structure and Evolution of Facebook’s APIs” (Working Paper Series No. 20, July 2021) trace the relationality between Facebook’s APIs, platform governance and data strategy. They provide an insight into the technicity of Facebook as one of the largest digital platforms, consisting of a ‘family of apps’, like WhatsApp or Instagram. The exchange of data and services between the platform is facilitated by the use of APIs, which can also be utilized for changes to platform policy or data strategy. The paper emphasizes the significance of the technicity of these platforms for maintaining infrastructural and evolutive power over their ecosystems.
The authors are members of the Collaborative Research Centers “Media of Cooperation” (SFB 1187) and “Transformationen des Populären” (SFB 1472) which are both locates at Siegen University. Marcus Burkhardt leads the project B08 “Agentic Media: Formations of Semi-Autonomy” which examines how agentic media are created cooperatively as actors in various fields of practice – chatbots, drones, and the academic development of algorithms – and asks which interactions orders as well as modes of cooperation emerge between human and synthetic actors. Tatjana Seitz and Fernando Van der Vlist are research associates at the projects A01 “Digital Network Technologies between Specialization and Generalization” and A03 “Navigation in Online/Offline Spaces”. Anne Helmond is assistant professor of New Media and Digital Culture at University of Amsterdam and principal investigator at the SFB 1472.
Their paper “The Technicity of Platform Governance – Structure and Evolution of Facebook’s APIs” is published as part of the Working Paper Series of the SFB 1187, which promotes inter- and transdisciplinary media research and provides an avenue for rapid publication and dissemination of ongoing research located at or associated with the CRC. The purpose of the series is to circulate in‑progress research to the wider research community beyond the CRC. All Working Papers are accessible via the website or can be ordered in print by sending an email to: karina.kirsten[æt]uni-siegen.de