Markets as free speech providers and political resignation: Swedish (non)regulation of streaming platforms

Abstract

In Sweden, the government has been reluctant to regulate streaming platforms, including the measures in the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which aim to maintain domestic and European productions. This article investigates what values are mobilized to legitimate the (non)regulation of streaming platforms in Sweden and what this means for democratic deliberation about platforms, content and culture. Building on policy documents and in-depth interviews, our findings are structured around policies addressing (1) democracy, equality and diversity and (2) European content, production and cultural values. Regulations are perceived to be difficult to enforce and often undesirable. This article identifies a shift in policy where regulating television has given way to producing media-literate, self-governing subjects. We introduce the concept ‘platform gaze’ to explain how regulation has deferred to the desires of platform providers, neglecting, e.g. independent producers. Further, we argue that the political space to discuss streamed content as culture has diminished.