Performative intermediaries versus digital regulation. A multidisciplinary analysis of the power of algorithms

As our economies, media, services and practices are becoming progressively more interconnected through and dependent on software and data-agile structures, efforts are being made worldwide to keep pace and to discipline this subject through regulatory frameworks. The ever-increasing pervasiveness of the role and power of digital platforms and intermediaries in our everyday lives has also broadened the scope of the reflection on their sociological, political, cultural and structural implications. Through a multidisciplinary approach, this contribution aims at defining and clarifying where algorithmic power and human regulation meet. To do so, both media studies and juridical discipline will come in handy in defining the theoretical framework of the first and the effectiveness of the second. Firstly, the theoretical background for understanding the “power of algorithms” will be outlined through a review of selected research literature on digital intermediaries, platform politics and algorithmic performance. Then, examination of the European digital regulation corpus will highlight the crucial issues that it aims to regulate, as well as the new perspectives that could impact and change the structure of the European digital space.