Sex, power and platform governance

Abstract

This article analyzes platform governance and platform power through the lens of deplatforming sex, and deplatforming of sex through the lens of concentration of norm and infrastructure power. Based on a meta-analysis of ethnographic, interview and social media data associated with cases of deplatforming and replatforming sex on social media, the article offers suggestions for reimagining platform governance and articulates a hope for a more sex-positive platform governance research agenda. Governance needs to be guided away from vague language and moral panic-driven conflation of problems, as both lead to overregulation of already culturally undervalued practices, topics and groups. Further, sex on social media needs to be regulated not just to protect the sensitive groups from it, but also to protect sex from the commercialism percolating through the technology stack. If the regulation is vague, the stack will always revert to the safety of the charmed circle as that is where the money is, and commercial gain cannot be the arbiter of any human rights, sexual rights included. Finally, cases of platform governance, when taken seriously, serve as indicators of a trajectory that the platformized and social media-dominated internet is on. Currently, the future looks dim.