What’s the big deal about platform policy?

Welcome to the Platform Policy Blog by Raveesh Mayya.

Platforms wield incredible influence over our digital landscape. These platforms not only affect the businesses they are built on but also communities that depend on them to operate. Given the dynamic nature of platforms, changes to their policies are frequent.

This series intends to investigate the world of platform policy designs and their impact on users (buyer-seller, renter-owner etc.) of the platform. On a regular basis, we intend to delve deeper into specific platform policy changes and their impacts by collaborating with co-authors and guest authors in a regular basis.

The reason for starting this series is the recognition that platform policy changes are frequent and often have unintended consequences.

What to expect from this series?

Fortnightly* updates that document the policy changes made by major platforms worldwide (“Digital Platform Policy Highlights Digest”)

Short summaries of research papers by platform researchers that explore interesting/noteworthy policy changes.

Co-written posts with platform experts, aimed at advancing discussions on platform policies and external regulations.

* Hopefully

List of Contributors (in the alphabetical order)

• Anantesh Mohapatra (research++)

• Yiran Liu (research)

Past Contributors (in the alphabetical order)

• Amanda Mooney (research++)

• Chitra Marti (co-writer)

• Divy Tandon (research)

• Melvin Jabamani (research)