New report focuses on why invisible infrastructures are key to platform governance reform

A new report released by the Centre for Media, Technology, and Democracy — set to launch this September — outlines an infrastructural approach to social media platforms, and has much to add to the policy space around platform governance of harmful content online. Written by Mike Ananny, Associate Professor of Communication and Journalism at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the report outlines how companies employ specific infrastructural concepts in their models.

The report serves to inform the Canadian Commission on Democratic Expression, an annual deliberative Commission on online hate aimed at developing policy options to directly address the harmful impacts of digital technologies on Canada’s democratic institutions and public life.

The Commission is led by the Public Policy Forum, and is supported by national citizen assemblies and by an independent research program at the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy led by Professor Taylor Owen.

Download the full report here to learn more about why invisible infrastructures are key to platform governance reform.