[Air-L] Call for Papers- Platform Governance by Competing Systems of Political Economy: The US and China

[Yik Chan Chin]

Platform Governance by Competing Systems of Political Economy: The US and
China

Conference co-organizers:

●      Dr. Milton Mueller, Internet Governance Project, Georgia Institute of
 Technology;

●      Dr. Yik-Chan Chin, School of Journalism and Communication & Internet
Institute, Beijing Normal University



Online: Beijing&Atlanta June 23-25 2021
Deadline for abstract submission: April 15 2021



The purpose of this conference is to compare and contrast the American and
Chinese systems of platform governance. Participants will include experts
in platform businesses and infrastructure as well as academics specializing
in communication-information policy and law, internet governance,
international relations, privacy and cybersecurity policy. Recognizing that
the digital economy is highly globalized, the conference will also analyze
US-China transnational interactions in the platform economy. This includes
those elements of trade policy, cybersecurity, finance and capital
investment regulation that affect the operation and regulation of platforms.



The term platform governance refers to the rules, practices, and design
decisions used to influence the way multi-sided markets or information
intermediaries manage users, data and content.



We do not look at platform governance issues in isolation, but consider
them to be expressions of two different systems of political economy. The
US and China have the two largest and most innovative internet economies,
but there are major differences between their political systems, economies,
foreign policies and approaches to international law and global governance.
Some observers believe that the US and Chinese systems of political economy
are incompatible, and cannot cooperate but can only conflict.



The belief in incompatibility may be true or it may be based in ignorance.
There is very little empirical comparative analysis of US and Chinese
platform governance. If we look, we may find as many similarities as
differences. When there are notable differences, it is also important to
understand what has created these differences and to assess the degree to
which they really do lead to incompatibility or conflict. This conference
is intended to allow Western and Chinese scholars and experts to conduct a
dispassionate and objective comparative analysis of each other’s platform
governance regimes.


The virtual conference will take place June 23-25, 2021. We invite 800-1000
word abstracts on any of the topics listed below by April 15. Submissions
in English and Chinese will be considered. We intend to offer simultaneous
translation of paper presentations.



Send emails by April 15 to us-china-conference at internetgovernance.org


All submissions should be focused on comparative analysis. It is our
intention to do a special issue of a journal for selected papers presented
in the conference.




For enquiry about the conference, please email: yik-chan.chin at bnu.edu.cn or
us-china-conference at internetgovernance.org


●     Placing platforms in their political-economic context



Both the US and China have economic systems that could be characterized as
“capitalist” and/or market-driven. China relies more on state- owned
enterprises and state direction. The U.S. has a more powerful private
sector and a more autonomous civil society. The differences of their
political systems, however, are profound, with a single party playing a
leading role in China and the US having institutionalized competition
between two parties.



○    How do the social, economic and political role of platforms differ in
the US and China?



○    What are the government regulatory institutions involved in governing
platforms in the US and China? What determines the roles of government and
the platforms themselves in governance?



○    How does the presence or absence of competition between political
parties affect political communication and economic policy?



○    How do the US and Chinese governments handle the problems of
transnational and extraterritorial jurisdiction in platform governance?


●               Social media, politics and content governance



○      What are the principles and mechanisms underlying content management in
the US and China?

○      What are the liability frameworks for platforms in the US and China?
If Section 230 immunities are a critical factor in the American approach,
would amending or ending those immunities make American social media more or
 less like China’s?



○      When American social media platforms restrict so called “coordinated
inauthentic behavior” from China, what is the role of the US government?
How does it compare to China's efforts to restrict foreign information
services’ access to Chinese citizens?



○      What kind of coordination of content governance is taking place among
 national governments, and the platforms themselves? Does this coordination
embrace Western and Chinese platforms, or only Western ones?


●               Cybersecurity and privacy



○      How do US and Chinese standards, national policies and laws
regarding end to end encryption by platforms compare with each other? What
are the similarities? What are the differences?



○      How does US-China cyber conflict - defined as inter-state rivalry
using cyberspace for espionage - affect each country’s policies towards
platforms? Is the economic success of each country’s platforms seen as a
strength, a vulnerability, or a risk?

○      What role do alleged or real cybersecurity risks play in opening or
closing each country’s cloud market?



○      How do US and Chinese efforts to create national policies and laws
regarding data privacy compare to one another? How do they intersect with
other policy regimes governing data privacy transnationally?


●               Platform agglomeration economies and regulation.



Digital platforms are expanding into multiple areas, including app stores,
digital payments, lending, e-commerce, food services and possibly even
cryptocurrencies.

○      Is the number of platforms in China and the US increasing or
decreasing? How concentrated are US and Chinese platform markets? Which one
is more concentrated?

○      How do the paths toward agglomeration in the US and China differ?



○      How are competition policy authorities in the US and China reacting
to the growth of platforms? What methods are used by the regulators to
measure market power or abuse of dominance?

○      Would competition from US platforms entering China’s markets help
Chinese consumers? Would competition from Chinese platforms entering US
markets help American consumers?

○      How do American platforms’ positions in payment systems compare to
Chinese ones?

○      How have the financial system and the policies of financial
regulators in the US and China been affected by the rise of platforms, how
do they react?



---------
Dr. Yik Chan Chin
Associate Professor
School of Journalism and Communication
Beijing Normal University
Beijing, P. R. China
Email: yik-chan.chin at bnu.edu.cn

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yik_Chan_Chin
http://ssrn.com/author=1377946