The Lab “Platform Governance, Media, and Technology” (PGMT) does research, teaching and knowledge transfer at the intersection of governance, digital communication and new technologies. We are particularly interested in platforms and their governance, as well the discursive, political and technological construction of “artificial intelligence” (AI). This website is to showcase a repertoire of our activities. Please also visit our official page at our home institution, the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), University of Bremen.
Research
The PGMT Lab does research, teaching and knowledge transfer at the intersection of governance, digital communication and new technologies.
Online Talk Series
We are hosting a monthly online conversation on empirical research on platform governance. Each session consists of a short input talk by a scholar, followed by ample time for discussions and exchange.
Platform Governance Archive
We are hosting the Platform Governance Archive (PGA) – a longitudinal data repository and interface on social media platforms’ policies and content moderations guidelines.
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X (formerly Twitter) softens its violent speech policy
On the 25th of October 2023, the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, made changes in their global Community Guidelines policy. According to the Platform Governance Archive, a data depository which automatically tracks policy changes on 18 platforms, X significantly softened its violent speech policy. In 2023, violent speech is defined by X (and…
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Meta changes its policy on sadistic imagery and violence as the Israeli–Palestinian conflict escalates
Meta · Community Guidelines · 17 October, 2023 *The following post may contain explicit language and content that could be distressing to some readers On October 17, Instagram and Facebook changed their Community Guidelines to specifically prohibit sadistic posts containing imagery of deceased babies. While before the corresponding policy section forbade the posting of “sadistic…
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PGMT member presents at the UN IGF in Kyoto
Member of ZeMKI and the Platform Governance, Media, and Technology Lab, Dr. Dennis Redeker, attends the 2023 United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Kyoto, Japan to conduct research and present research and teaching activities. In Japan, Dennis pursues background conversations, individual interviews and focus group interviews with stakeholders in the UN Global Digital Compact consultation and negotiation processes. This research is part…
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Portrait of Lab Lead and PGMT work
The online magazine Up2Date of the University of Bremen has produced a nice portrait of the head of the PGMT Lab Christian Katzenbach and of the work at PGMT. The text focussed on our wok on discourses and regulation of AI, specifically on the projects Shaping AI and Imaginaries of AI. The article quotes Christian…
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PGMT at #IAMCR2023
Good morning! Today #IAMCR2023 is starting with the full programm in Lyon and online. The PGMT team is directly starting with two competing presentations at 8:30 this Monday: Then on Wednesday: Don’t hesitate to reach out to us either via mail, or catch Adrian, Daria, or Vanessa in the hallways in Lyon.
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New article by PGMT member Vanessa Richter on Influencers’ Instagram Imaginaries
PGMT member Vanessa Richter together with Zhen Ye has published an article on “Influencers’ Instagram Imaginaries as a global phenomenon: Negotiating precarious interdependencies on followers, the platform environment, and commercial expectations” in a Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies special issue on social media and platform work. The article deals with…
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PGMT member’s research supported by Data Science Center Seed Grant
The Data Science Center (DSC) at the University of Bremen supports research by PGMT Lab Dr. Dennis Redeker, which is planned at the intersection of data science and methods development for social scientific survey research. Large-scale cross-national surveys in the social sciences are normally run as face-to-face surveys which makes them extremely resource-intensive. Online surveys,…
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Talks at “Global Perspectives on Platform, Labour, and Social Reproduction”
Next week 27-28 June 2023, the conference “Global Perspectives on Platform, Labour, and Social Reproduction” will happen at the University of Amsterdam. PGMT will be present with two presentations by Vanessa Richter and Paloma Viejo Otero. Vanessa will present joint work with Thomas Poell on the “Politics of Platform Imaginaries”; Paloma will talk about our…