2017 International Conference on Social Media & Society (#SMSociety)

Authors: Anne Helmond, David Nieborg and Fernando van der Vlist

Abstract: Social media industry partnerships are essential to understand the politics and economics of social data flowing between platforms and third-parties. We investigate how platform partnerships evolve over time to understand (i) the dynamic roles of platforms and partners as data brokers, (ii) their diversification by catering to a growing number of stakeholders, all with distinct interests, and (iii) their gradual entrenchment as dominant actors within the internet industry. We focus on Facebook the dominant platform that functions both as data aggregator and marketing platform that operates multiple dedicated partner programs and that cater to a wide array of industry partners. We employ a mixed methods approach. On the one hand, “digital methods” for mapping partnerships over time using archived pages of Facebook’s official partner program directories, as well as developer documentation from the Internet Archive to enquire into changing partnership types. On the other hand, we conducted semi-structured interviews with selected partners to contextualize their distinct roles, positions, and data strategies within the industry. By considering how partnership alliances are forged and subsequently dissolved over time, we offer insights into “stakeholder politics” as well as platforms’ entrenchment within the Internet industry. In brief, we aim to develop a critical account of the political economy of social data by addressing the infrastructural dimension of platform data power.