Robert Gorwa


WZB Berlin Social Science Center
Home

This page has a current bio (updated 20.03.2024) for me in different lengths. If I'm giving a talk for you or your organization, you're welcome to use one of these without additional permission.

Shortest (11 words)

Robert Gorwa is a postdoc at the Berlin Social Science Center.

Short (43)

Robert Gorwa is a postdoctoral researcher at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB). He has published widely on platform governance, content moderation, and other emerging technology policy issues, and his first book, The Politics of Platform Regulation, was published in 2024 by Oxford University Press.

Long (100)

Robert Gorwa is a postdoctoral researcher at the Berlin Social Science Center. He studies the politics of technology policy, with a special interest in platform governance and emerging socio-technical regulatory arrangements in the digital economy. He received his doctorate from the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford, and is currently a fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology and at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. His first book, The Politics of Platform Regulation: How Governments Shape Online Content Moderation, was published in 2024 by Oxford University Press.

Extremely Long and Formal (260)

Dr Robert Gorwa is a postdoctoral researcher at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), and a fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT, in Washington), and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI, in Waterloo). He conducts interdisplinary empirical and conceptual research addressing the politics of technology policy, with a special interest in emerging socio-technical governance infrastructures and institutions in the platform economy.

Since Dr. Gorwa began his graduate work in media and communication/internet studies (MSc, 2017) and politics and international relations (DPhil, 2021) in Oxford, he has been publishing in leading interdisciplinary digital policy outlets, with work featured in venues like Big Data & Society, Information, Communication & Society, and ACM FAccT. His first book, The Politics of Platform Regulation: How Governments Shape Online Content Moderation, was published in 2024 by Oxford University Press.

Alongside this academic work, Dr. Gorwa writes for public and policy audiences, with pieces featured in a range of online and print publications like the LA Review of Books, Foreign Affairs, Wired Magazine, and Jacobin. He has presented his work for high-level policymakers in various jurisdictions, including at the US-EU Trade and Technology Council and the EU Observatory on the Online Platform Economy, and he has consulted for Human Rights Watch and other digital rights organizations.

In 2020, Dr. Gorwa and an international group of colleagues began organizing the Platform Governance Research Network conference. He currently lives in Berlin and can be found on Mastodon at @rg@someone.elses.computer.