Bredowcast

For the first time, Facebook has given scientists direct access to its internal decision-making bodies. Researchers from the Hamburg-based Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI) have investigated how Facebook develops communication rules for its platform. On the BredowCast researchers Wolfgang Schulz and Matthias C. Kettemann talk about research on new territory. Facebook's Community Standards regulate what users can say on Facebook and what must be taken down and thereby influence the ways in which 2.7 billion users interact with one another and, to some degree, perceive the world: These rules are an example of the profound influence that private regulations can have on public communication. In a pilot study, researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Media Research have investigated how Facebook develops its rules and which stakeholders are involved in this process. Matthias C. Kettemann, head of research of the Institute’s research program on online rule-making and a senior res