The Networked Leviathan
For Democratic Platforms

This book offers a social-science-informed program to democratize the major internet companies that are unable to govern their users.

Paul Gowder (Author)

9781108971904, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 August 2023

256 pages
23 x 15.3 x 1.6 cm, 0.394 kg

'… provides strong justification for democratic governance of platforms - at least when it comes to executing tasks whose successful completion is in the interest of both companies and the public - that's grounded in a century's worth of political theory.' Surya Gowda, www.promarket.org

Governments and consumers expect internet platform companies to regulate their users to prevent fraud, stop misinformation, and avoid violence. Yet, so far, they've failed to do so. The inability of platforms like Facebook, Google, and Amazon to govern their users has led to stolen elections, refused vaccines, counterfeit N95s in a pandemic, and even genocide. Such failures stem from these companies' inability to manage the complexity of their userbases, products, and their own incentives under the eyes of internal and external constituencies. The Networked Leviathan argues that countries should adapt the institutional tools developed in political science to democratize the major platforms. Democratic institutions allow knowledgeable actors to freely share and apply their understanding of the problems they face while leaders more readily recruit third parties to help manage their decision-making capacity. This book is also available Open Access on Cambridge Core. For more information, visit https://networked-leviathan.com.

Introduction: The Perils of Platform Misgovernance
1. The Nature and Problems of Platforms
2. The Enterprise of Platform Governance Development
3. The Problem of Platform Knowledge
4. The Problem of Platform Self-Control
5. Actually Existing Platform Self-Constraint Up to a Point: The Meta Oversight Board
6. Platform Democracy Now!
Conclusion: How Liberal-Democratic Governments Can Act Now.

Subject Areas: IT & Communications law [LNQ]