Robert Gorwa


WZB Berlin Social Science Center
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Bios

Hi! I'm a technology policy academic living in Berlin. My primary interest is in examing the complexities of — as well as the politics underpinning — regulation in the contemporary digital economy. Most of my research is situated at the intersection of public and private governance in technically complex, socially contested, and often hard-to-observe domains, with a particular interest in online 'platform' services big and small. I'm known for writing about 'platform governance', automated content moderation, and user-generated content regulation from a politically-inflected and institutionally-minded perspective. My work is interdisciplinary, and I especially like to collaborate with legal scholars and computer scientists. Of late, I'm thinking a lot about trust & safety and platformization in the AI ecosystem, as well as the character and contradictions of the EU's digital policymaking.

More concretely:

(For a formal introduction for events, see the bios page.)

Publications

See also Google Scholar.

Closed publisher links are pink. Links to open access publications and preprints are green.

Books

  • The Politics of Platform Regulation: How Governments Shape Online Content Moderation.
    Robert Gorwa, 2024.
    Oxford University Press PDF

Articles

Chapters

  • Democratic Transparency in the Platform Society
    Robert Gorwa and Timothy Garton Ash, 2020
    In Social Media and Democracy: The State of the Field and Prospects for Reform
    Cambridge University Press
  • Big Tech Hits the Diplomatic Circuit: Norm Entrepreneurship, Policy Advocacy, and Microsoft's Cybersecurity Tech Accord
    Robert Gorwa and Anton Peez, 2020
    In Governing Cyberspace: Behavior, Power, and Diplomacy
    Rowman & Littlefield
  • Prayer-Bots and Religious Worship on Twitter: A Call for a Wider Research Agenda
    Carl Ohman, Robert Gorwa, and Luciano Floridi, 2019
    In Ethics, Governance, and Policies in Artificial Intelligence
    Springer
    Minds & Machines
  • Poland: Unpacking the Ecosystem of Social Media Manipulation
    Robert Gorwa, 2018
    In Computational Propaganda: Parties, Politicians, and Manipulation on Social Media
    Oxford University Press

Reviews

  • Digital Oligarchy
    On Jillian York's Silicon Values, 2022
    LA Review of Books
  • How We Can Socialize Big Tech
    On James Muldoon's Platform Socialism, 2022
    Jacobin
  • The Last of the Unicorns
    On Siva Vaidhyanathan's Anti-Social Media, 2019
    LA Review of Books
  • Platform Moderation and its Discontents
    On Tarleton Gillespie's Custodians of the Internet, 2018
    LA Review of Books

Reports

  • What Can Be Done? Digital Media Policy Options for Strengthening European Democracy
    Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Robert Gorwa, and Madeleine de Cock Buning, 2019
    Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
  • Lessons In Resilience: Canada's Digital Media Ecosystem and the 2019 Election
    Taylor Owen, Aengus Bridgeman, Robert Gorwa et al., 2019
    Public Policy Forum
  • Glasnost: Nine Ways that Facebook Could Make Itself a Better Forum for Free Speech and Democracy
    Timothy Garton Ash, Robert Gorwa, and Danae Metaxa, 2019
    Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

Commentaries

  • Durov's Arrest and the Shadow Politics of Platform Regulation
    A summary of my book's arguments and a look at some of the actors and interests driving the recent battle between French law enfocement and Telegram.
    Robert Gorwa, 2024
    Tech Policy Press
  • European Security Officials Double Down on Client-Side Scanning
    A few reflections on the transnational politics (and interest groups) driving EU draft CSAM proposals
    Robert Gorwa, 2022
    Lawfare
  • Expanding the Debate About Content Moderation
    A 'roundtable' piece with short inputs from a number of major names in the content moderation research space (honoured to be included!)
    Tarleton Gillespie et al., 2020
    Internet Policy Review
  • As Platforms Rely Less on Human Content Moderators, What's at Stake?
    Short invited contribution reflecting on the news that major platforms were ramping up their use of automated content screening tools in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic
    Robert Gorwa, 2020
    Centre for International Governance Innovation
  • Regulating Platforms Softly
    An essay reflecting on informal and co-regulatory models for platform regulation; part of essay collection on 'Models for Platform Governance'
    Robert Gorwa, 2019
    Centre for International Governance Innovation
  • Big Tech Hits the Diplomatic Circuit
    Summary of book chapter looking at the growing and unique role played by Microsoft in international digital policy - and their unique 'diplomatic' lobbying strategy
    Robert Gorwa and Anton Peez, 2019
    Berlin Policy Journal
  • What Policymakers Can Do For Europe's Digital Media Ecosystem
    Summary of RISJ report looking at sustainable media policy suggestions for the von Der Leyen Commission
    Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Madeleine de Cock Buning, and Robert Gorwa, 2019
    The Conversation
  • The Shifting Definition of Platform Governance
    Invited contribution with some general reflections on how to understand and define 'platform governance' - both as a field of research and as a terrain of political struggle
    Robert Gorwa, 2019
    Centre for International Governance Innovation
  • How Mark Zuckerberg Could Save Facebook From Itself
    Op-ed with summary takeaways from RISJ 'Glasnost' report looking at the slow increase in Facebook's community standards-related transparency in 2018-2019
    Robert Gorwa and Danae Metaxa, 2019
    WIRED
  • Facebook's Decency Conundrum
    Print mag piece with some thoughts on the challenges of moderating borderline content (like 'art')
    Robert Gorwa, 2018
    WIRED
  • Twitter has a Bot Problem, and Wikipedia Might Have the Solution
    Op-ed looking at Wikipedia's bot classification and reporting system, and comparing that to Twitter's decision to privilige developer access over content moderation
    Robert Gorwa, 2017
    Quartz
  • Tinder Nightmares
    Op-ed applying some reflections from our Policy & Internet article on bots to an interesting (and potentially problematic) use of automated Tinder bots for electioneering in the UK
    Robert Gorwa and Douglas Guilbeault, 2017
    WIRED
  • Quantum Leap
    Essay discussing developments in quantum computing (and quantum resistant cryptography), and its potential implications for geopolitics
    Taylor Owen and Robert Gorwa, 2016
    Foreign Affairs