Content Moderation, Platformised Speech Governance, and Legitimacy: TikTok in South and Southeast Asia
Diyi Liu · 2024
Transnational online platforms continuously navigate a mix of international and national laws, cultural norms, and political sensitivities to define what constitutes legitimate content moderation. While there is extensive research on platform governance in established democracies, less focus on the complexities of content moderation in less democratic developing countries. This integrated PhD thesis aims to contextualise how global online platforms hosting user-generated content (UGC) govern online speech within national systems that have to date been overlooked in scholarship. Sitting at the intersection of research on international political economy, platform governance, and human centred computing, the thesis draws on literature on legitimacy to offer a detailed examination of how a UGC platform originating from China (i.e., TikTok) governs online speech in two South and Southeast Asia countries - Indonesia and Pakistan. More importantly, by emphasising user insights in online speech governance, the thesis examines how users perceive the legitimacy of platformised content moderation, particularly in relation to sensitive and controversial borderline topics (i.e., gender/sexual, religious and political content). The comparative approach presents opportunities for understanding how on-the-ground insights can be mobilised to better govern algorithms and online platforms.