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Contribution Details

Type Journal Article
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title Not all who are bots are evil: A cross-platform analysis of automated agent governance
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Mykola Makhortykh
  • Aleksandra Urman
  • Felix Victor Münch
  • Amélie Heldt
  • Stephan Dreyer
  • Matthias C Kettemann
Item Subtype Original Work
Refereed Yes
Status Published in final form
Language
  • English
Journal Title New Media & Society
Publisher Sage Publications
Geographical Reach international
ISSN 1461-4448
Volume 24
Number 4
Page Range 964 - 981
Date 2022
Abstract Text The growth of online platforms is accompanied by the increasing use of automated agents. Despite being discussed primarily in the context of opinion manipulation, agents play diverse roles within platform ecosystems that raises the need for governance approaches that go beyond policing agents’ unwanted behaviour. To provide a more nuanced assessment of agent governance, we introduce an analytical framework that distinguishes between different aspects and forms of governance. We then apply it to explore how agents are governed across nine platforms. Our observations show that despite acknowledging diverse roles of agents, platforms tend to focus on governing selected forms of their misuse. We also observe differences in governance approaches used by platforms, in particular when it comes to the agent rights/obligations and transparency of policing mechanisms. These observations highlight the necessity of advancing the algorithmic governance research agenda and developing a generalizable normative framework for agent governance.
Free access at DOI
Digital Object Identifier 10.1177/14614448221079035
Other Identification Number merlin-id:22345
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Keywords Sociology and Political Science, Communication