Governance of Social Media Platforms: A Literature Review

Abstract

Background: The proliferation of misinformation, fake news, and hate speech are some of the significant challenges posed by social media platforms these days. Social Media Platforms have now started influencing our opinions and even decision-making. Our recent past is full of incidents fueled by social media, some of which were not palatable and had a deleterious effect on society. The governance of social media platforms has been a growing concern in recent times. The extant literature talks about the regulation of platforms, but very few studies delve into the governance of social media platforms. This paper synthesizes the existing knowledge and identifies the gaps in social media governance. Method: This study reviews 64 relevant studies on the governance of social media platforms over the last decade. This paper adopts a thematic analysis approach in analyzing the relevant papers and categorizing them into potential themes. Results: This categorizes the relevant studies into what and how to govern. We find that content virality and source identification need to be governed. Governance can be done by social-media platforms, third parties, or a combination. This study also proposes some prominent future research agendas for future researchers. Conclusions: This study specifically focuses on reviewing the studies which deal with the governance of social media platforms. Substantial literature discusses social media and platform governance, but hardly any study comprehensively examines the governance of social media platforms. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the studies that address social media governance. The discernments drawn from the study will guide future research on the governance of social media platforms.