The Imperative of Code: Labor, regulation and legitimacy

This chapter analyzes digital platforms that are marked by a transition from a user-based to market-based entity. By focusing on a migration between digital organizations, user labor practices and regulation, we investigate the trajectories of ‘community and monetization’ emerging with the platformization of the Internet, in order to uncover a growing constitutional legitimacy gap in multi-sided business models. We therefore attempt to unravel the delicate balance between regulation and co-regulation of digital platforms. Co-regulation entails taking into account the interests of multiple actors, incorporating different incentives for (user) participation across the ‘value chain’, which are said to increase transparency, pluralism, trust and respect for privacy. Based on legal cases surrounding Facebook, we make a case for a co-regulatory framework.