Mastodawn

🚨 In a new article, Yoonmo Sang and I theorize platform governance as a communicative process via a case study of Australia’s Online Safety Act, to understand why and how (via a collision of macro/ meso / micro forces) governance develops differently in different contexts.
https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/jdmp_00187_1

Paul Popiel Oct 6

🚨 New article out, great colab w/
@_davidberman, assessing the primary U.S. response to the digital divide: the corporate subsidy. Using mixed methods, we show how networked "digital equity" reinforces network monopoly.

https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/2BPFGBWUHXZ7VU87WKCT/full?target=10.1080/1369118X.2025.2561026

Paul Popiel Feb 16, 2025

Paul Popiel Jan 2, 2025

Good riddance to Clegg, whose legacy includes Cambridge Analytica, regulatory obfuscation, and a stalwart defense of some of the worst tendencies of Meta (and big tech more broadly). Of course. the choice to replace him with Kaplan, a W. Bush alum, is a cynical recalibration by Meta. But big tech is increasingly a race to the bottom (line and enshittification).
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/02/technology/meta-joel-kaplan-nick-clegg.html

Meta Appoints Joel Kaplan to Lead Global Policy, Replacing Nick Clegg

Joel Kaplan, who was a former senior adviser to George W. Bush, replaces Nick Clegg, who was a former deputy prime minister of Britain, as Meta’s head of policy.

The New York Times

Paul Popiel Nov 7, 2024

Trump expected to shift course on antitrust, stop Google breakup

https://www.reuters.com/technology/trump-expected-shift-course-antitrust-stop-google-breakup-2024-11-06/

Paul Popiel Nov 2, 2024

Uh...we are "uniquely powerful"?? Like at articulating dissent well to everything we have no control over?

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/02/us/faculty-power-shared-governance-university-presidents.html

Professors Worry Their Power Is Shrinking at Universities

Faculty members are used to sharing power with presidents and trustees to run universities. But some presidents and lawmakers have made moves to reduce their say.

The New York Times

Paul Popiel Oct 25, 2024

Maybe the journalism-crisis-fueled hopeful leap into Silicon Valley arms ten years ago was not what journalists thought... 🤔

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/jeff-bezos-to-his-future-washington-post-journalists-put-the-readers-first/2013/09/04/33040228-15a9-11e3-a2ec-b47e45e6f8ef_story.html

Jeff Bezos to his future Washington Post journalists: Put the readers first

The Amazon chief and soon-to-be owner of the paper shared an upbeat vision as he met with the newsroom.

The Washington Post

Paul Popiel Oct 25, 2024

Just gonna throw this 2013 quote up here for no real reason

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/aug/06/washington-post-jeff-bezos

Jeff Bezos: Washington Post sale leaves some anxiety over mogul's motives

Newsroom described as optimistic the day after the paper's sale as most believe Amazon founder brings needed expertise

The Guardian

Paul Popiel Jun 13, 2024

🚨🚨Check out my new piece with Krishna Vasudevan, tracing how frictions within platform capitalism illuminate the shifting shapes of actually existing platformization AND introducing fantastic studies that constitute our Info, Comm & Society Special Issue on the subject 🔥

https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/3GE4XHGAQZFYKEKCYCUI/full?target=10.1080/1369118X.2024.2361095

Paul Popiel Sep 22, 2023

These exhibits from US v. Google (which Google sought to keep from the public) are an enlightening read

https://theverge.com/2023/9/21/23883680/us-google-antitrust-trial-amit-mehta-doj-exhibit-documents

Here are the documents the Google antitrust trial judge didn’t want you to see

Court exhibits removed from the Department of Justice’s site after a complaint from Google and decision from Judge Amit Mehta.

The Verge

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