Leonhard Dobusch
One reason why it is so hard to reign into Big Tech platforms is their own contradictions. In a new article by Elke Schüßler, Sara Maric & myself, we try to unpack how they expand and subvert democratic publics by looking at the case of YouTube: authors.elsevier.com/c/1mc285Ef7A... #1paper1meme 1/4
Feb 13 at 12:47pmWeb
Show threadLeonhard DobuschFeb 13
The issue is that both is true at the same time: YouTube has expanded democratic publics by lowering barriers for content creation and distribution; and it also has subverted our democratic publics by amplifying extremist, emotionalising or propagandistic content. 2/4
Show threadLeonhard DobuschFeb 13
To give another example, it is YouTube's monopolistic market dominance that makes it so strong and valuable as a market place for creators and users alike; at the same time, the proprietary governance leads to discriminatory practices such as shadow bans without accountability. 3/4
Show threadLeonhard DobuschFeb 13
In our analysis, we show how YouTube navigates these contradictions and argue that decentralised and non-proprietary alternatives based on open standards and protocols such as the Fediverse would lead to different outcomes. Check out the full text: authors.elsevier.com/c/1mc285Ef7A...