[3][4] Based on governance principles that can evolve, platforms shape how their users orchestrate digital resources to create social connections and perform market transactions.
[5][7] That's why law and technology scholar Julie E. Cohen described the digital platform as "the core organizational form of the emerging informational economy" that can, in some circumstances, replace traditional markets.
[10] As of October 5, 2020, the five most valuable corporations publicly listed in the U.S. were all primarily digital platform owners and operators (Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Alphabet) and so were the top two in China (Alibaba, Tencent).
[17] This has been seen in Elections such as the 2016 EU referendum where 'Political Bots' on Digital Platforms targeted older age groups with concerns on immigration for the argument that the U.K. should leave the European Union.
[5] By contrast, non-corporate digital platforms, including the Linux operating system, Wikipedia and Ethereum, are community-managed; they do not have shareholders nor do they employ executives in charge of achieving predefined goals.
[20] Some platforms have been suspected of anticompetitive behavior,[21] of promoting a form of surveillance capitalism,[22] of violating labor laws,[23] and more generally, of shaping the contours of a digital dystopia.