The Technicity of Platform Governance: Structure and Evolution of Facebook’s APIs

Fernando van der Vlist; Anne Helmond; Marcus Burkhardt; Tatjana Seitz

doi:10.25819/ubsi/9951

The Technicity of Platform Governance: Structure and Evolution of Facebook’s APIs

Fernando van der Vlist^*, Anne Helmond, Marcus Burkhardt, Tatjana Seitz

^*Corresponding author for this work

ICON - Media and Performance Studies

Research output: Working paper › Academic

Abstract

Researchers, policymakers, and competition and regulation authorities worldwide recognise application programming interfaces (APIs) for powering the digital economy and driving processes of datafication and platformisation. However, it is unclear how APIs tie into the power of, and governance by, large digital platforms. This article traces the relationality between Facebook’s APIs, platform governance, and data strategy based on an empirical and evolutionary analysis. It examines a large corpus of (archived) developer pages and API reference documentation to determine the technicity of platform governance – the technical dimension and dynamics of how and what platforms like Facebook seek to govern. It traces how Facebook Platform evolved into a complex layered and interconnected governance arrangement, wherein technical API specifications serve to enforce (changes to) platform policy and (data) strategy. Finally, the article discusses the significance of this technicity in specifying the material conditions for app and business development ‘on top of’ platforms and for maintaining infrastructural and evolutive power over their ecosystems.

Original language	English
Place of Publication	Siegen, Germany
Publisher	Collaborative Research Centre 1187 Media of Cooperation
Pages	1–25
Number of pages	25
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.25819/ubsi/9951
Publication status	Published - 23 Jul 2021

Publication series

Name	CRC Media of Cooperation Working Paper Series
Publisher	Collaborative Research Centre 1187 Media of Cooperation
Volume	20
ISSN (Print)	2567-2509
ISSN (Electronic)	2567-2517

Keywords

APIs
platform governance
platform evolution
platform power
data strategy
Facebook

Access to Document

10.25819/ubsi/9951Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

WPS_20_Platform GovernanceFinal published version, 5.09 MB

4 Article
2 Conference contribution
1 Conference article
1 Doctoral thesis 1 (Research UU / Graduation UU)
More
- 1 Working paper

API Governance: The Case of Facebook's Evolution
van der Vlist, F. N., Helmond, A., Burkhardt, M. & Seitz, T., Apr 2022, In: Social Media + Society. 8, 2, p. 1–24 24 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Open Access
File
The platform as ecosystem: Configurations and dynamics of governance and power
van der Vlist, F. N., 16 Sept 2022, Utrecht: Utrecht University. 339 p.
Research output: Thesis › Doctoral thesis 1 (Research UU / Graduation UU)

Open Access
File
Pandemic platform governance: Mapping the global ecosystem of COVID-19 response apps
Dieter, M., Tkacz, N., van der Vlist, F., Weltevrede, E. & Helmond, A., 6 Aug 2021, In: Internet Policy Review. 10, 3, p. 1-28
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Open Access
File
THE GOVERNANCE OF FACEBOOK PLATFORM
Helmond, A., van der Vlist, F., Burkhardt, M. & Seitz, T., 15 Sept 2021, In: AoIR - Selected Papers of Internet Research. 2021, 4 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Conference article › Academic › peer-review

Open Access
File
THE EVOLUTION OF FACEBOOK'S GRAPH API
Burkhardt, M., Helmond, A., Seitz, T. & van der Vlist, F. N., 5 Oct 2020, AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research. Journals@UIC , p. 1–4 4 p.
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

Open Access
File

Cite this

@techreport{1054f3c7d7c74fa783bf71f137b864c0,

title = "The Technicity of Platform Governance: Structure and Evolution of Facebook{\textquoteright}s APIs",

abstract = "Researchers, policymakers, and competition and regulation authorities worldwide recognise application programming interfaces (APIs) for powering the digital economy and driving processes of datafication and platformisation. However, it is unclear how APIs tie into the power of, and governance by, large digital platforms. This article traces the relationality between Facebook{\textquoteright}s APIs, platform governance, and data strategy based on an empirical and evolutionary analysis. It examines a large corpus of (archived) developer pages and API reference documentation to determine the technicity of platform governance – the technical dimension and dynamics of how and what platforms like Facebook seek to govern. It traces how Facebook Platform evolved into a complex layered and interconnected governance arrangement, wherein technical API specifications serve to enforce (changes to) platform policy and (data) strategy. Finally, the article discusses the significance of this technicity in specifying the material conditions for app and business development {\textquoteleft}on top of{\textquoteright} platforms and for maintaining infrastructural and evolutive power over their ecosystems.",

keywords = "APIs, platform governance, platform evolution, platform power, data strategy, Facebook",

author = "\{van der Vlist\}, Fernando and Anne Helmond and Marcus Burkhardt and Tatjana Seitz",

year = "2021",

month = jul,

day = "23",

doi = "10.25819/ubsi/9951",

language = "English",

series = "CRC Media of Cooperation Working Paper Series",

publisher = "Collaborative Research Centre 1187 Media of Cooperation",

pages = "1–25",

type = "WorkingPaper",

institution = "Collaborative Research Centre 1187 Media of Cooperation",

}

TY - UNPB

T1 - The Technicity of Platform Governance

T2 - Structure and Evolution of Facebook’s APIs

AU - van der Vlist, Fernando

AU - Helmond, Anne

AU - Burkhardt, Marcus

AU - Seitz, Tatjana

PY - 2021/7/23

Y1 - 2021/7/23

N2 - Researchers, policymakers, and competition and regulation authorities worldwide recognise application programming interfaces (APIs) for powering the digital economy and driving processes of datafication and platformisation. However, it is unclear how APIs tie into the power of, and governance by, large digital platforms. This article traces the relationality between Facebook’s APIs, platform governance, and data strategy based on an empirical and evolutionary analysis. It examines a large corpus of (archived) developer pages and API reference documentation to determine the technicity of platform governance – the technical dimension and dynamics of how and what platforms like Facebook seek to govern. It traces how Facebook Platform evolved into a complex layered and interconnected governance arrangement, wherein technical API specifications serve to enforce (changes to) platform policy and (data) strategy. Finally, the article discusses the significance of this technicity in specifying the material conditions for app and business development ‘on top of’ platforms and for maintaining infrastructural and evolutive power over their ecosystems.

AB - Researchers, policymakers, and competition and regulation authorities worldwide recognise application programming interfaces (APIs) for powering the digital economy and driving processes of datafication and platformisation. However, it is unclear how APIs tie into the power of, and governance by, large digital platforms. This article traces the relationality between Facebook’s APIs, platform governance, and data strategy based on an empirical and evolutionary analysis. It examines a large corpus of (archived) developer pages and API reference documentation to determine the technicity of platform governance – the technical dimension and dynamics of how and what platforms like Facebook seek to govern. It traces how Facebook Platform evolved into a complex layered and interconnected governance arrangement, wherein technical API specifications serve to enforce (changes to) platform policy and (data) strategy. Finally, the article discusses the significance of this technicity in specifying the material conditions for app and business development ‘on top of’ platforms and for maintaining infrastructural and evolutive power over their ecosystems.

KW - APIs

KW - platform governance

KW - platform evolution

KW - platform power

KW - data strategy

KW - Facebook

U2 - 10.25819/ubsi/9951

DO - 10.25819/ubsi/9951

M3 - Working paper

T3 - CRC Media of Cooperation Working Paper Series

SP - 1

EP - 25

BT - The Technicity of Platform Governance

PB - Collaborative Research Centre 1187 Media of Cooperation

CY - Siegen, Germany

ER -

The Technicity of Platform Governance: Structure and Evolution of Facebook’s APIs

Abstract

Publication series

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Research output

API Governance: The Case of Facebook's Evolution

The platform as ecosystem: Configurations and dynamics of governance and power

Pandemic platform governance: Mapping the global ecosystem of COVID-19 response apps

THE GOVERNANCE OF FACEBOOK PLATFORM

THE EVOLUTION OF FACEBOOK'S GRAPH API

Cite this