Platform nations

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of platform nations to capture an important recent shift in the way nations and nationalism operate in the public domain. If the rise of the internet initially led to a weakening of state control over public expressions of national belonging, the growing monopoly of platforms enables states to reassert control over national imagination, while also opening doors for other political and corporate actors to interfere in the process.

State in Context of Dataism: Swarm of Political Agents and Data Management in Russia and the World

“…Международные инициативы в сфере данных дополняют межрегиональные экономические проекты и программы сотрудничества, поэтому в условиях торговых войн и «цифрового национализма» перспективы международных соглашений по управлению данными остаются неопределенными. Кроме того, отдельным трендом выступает разработка стратегий по ограничению экспорта данных, которые действуют в макрорегионах, например, GDPR в Европейском cоюзе [9,10]. В среднесрочной перспективе можно ожидать сохранение описанных тенденций, что, скорее всего, приведет к асимметрии подходов разных регионов к регулированию данных и сокращению их трансграничной мобильности.…”

Deplatforming “the people”: media populism, racial capitalism, and the regulation of online reactionary networks

“…For example, in countries with stronger governmental regulatory regimes like many European Union members, the reaction to deplatforming might take up legalistic stratagem which could subvert the “outsider” ethos of populism. Furthermore, the regulatory turn is severely understudied in Africa and Latin America (Mihelj, 2023). Media populism may clarify how “digital colonialism” (Kwet, 2019: 7–10), through which Northern technology companies impose platforms upon the Global South, functions through the imposition of white bourgeois governance.…”

Introduction: Nation promotion and the crisis of neoliberal globalisation

“…Paradoxically, although digital technologies gave individuals a greater potential to reject or subvert official nation promotion initiatives, they facilitated narrower approaches that reduce the nation to a community of economic actors interested in selling and/or consuming particular skills and products, rather than citizens with diverse cultural, political and social interests and needs (Castelló & Mihelj, 2018). Most recently, the growing monopoly of digital platforms is enabling states to reassert control over the national imagination, while also allowing other (non‐state) actors to interfere in the process (Mihelj, 2023).…”

“…Most recently, the growing monopoly of digital platforms is enabling states to reassert control over the national imagination, while also allowing other (non-state) actors to interfere in the process (Mihelj, 2023).…”