Dear all, We're excited to announce the 12th session of 'Behind the Scenes: Conversations on Empirical Platform Governance Research', happening online this coming 22nd of October from 3-4 pm (CET). Dr. Rébecca Suzanne Franco from the University of Amsterdam will join us to discuss the challenges of researching workers' rights in the online adult/porn industry with a talk titled: 'An Industry Perspective on Regulating Platformized Sexual Content'. Abstract: The rise of digital platforms has transformed sexual commerce, raising questions about how sexual content is sold and regulated and on what terms at the intersection of several regulatory domains: pornography and sex work, user-generated content, and gig labor.Regulation of platformized pornography and sex work is no longer the sole domain of state actors; it now involves a complex network of stakeholders, including platform providers, high-risk payment processors, and content moderation services that shape and provide the infastructure for the digital sexual economy. This talk delves into empirical research that examines the evolving regulatory landscape of platformized sex work and adult content, often described as a regulatory ‘grey zone.’ This talk will highlight the necessity of an iterative and investigative approach to understanding how this stigmatized and rapidly changing industry is governed. I will reflect on fieldwork experiences, the role of researcher positionality towards dynamic understandings of ‘vulnerability’ and ‘harm’, and — drawing on engaged scholarship on sex workers’ rights — the importance of community engagement. Bio: Dr Rébecca Suzanne Franco is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research working on the NWO research project ‘The Platformization of the Sex Industry: Morals, Markets and Mass Intimacy’, where she investigates the regulation of platformized sexual content and sex work. Previously, she completed a PhD in the regulation of (post)colonial migration and intimacies. Rébecca’s research interests revolve around the regulation of sex and intimacies, both historically and in the digital platform era. Register here: https://platform-governance.org/online-talk-series/session-12-rebecca-suzann... Joao, on behalf of Paloma and Christian -- João C. Magalhães Assistant Professor in Media, Politics and Democracy University of Groningen | Centre for Media and Journalism Studies https://jcmagalhaes.com/ Selected publications: Governance by technological design, a critique <https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap/book/9781800887206/book-part-9781800887206-32.xml>, 2024 (Handbook of Media and Communication Governance) | A history of objectionability in Twitter’s moderation practices <https://academic.oup.com/joc/advance-article/doi/10.1093/joc/jqad015/7204763?utm_source=authortollfreelink&utm_campaign=joc&utm_medium=email&guestAccessKey=fe630b65-d137-4378-bfb2-44026df942a7&login=false>, 2023 (Journal of Communication, w/ Emillie de Keulenaar, Bharath Ganesh) | Social media, social unfreedom <https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/commun-2022-0040/html>, 2022 (Communications, w/ Jun Yu) | Big Tech, data colonialism and the reconfiguration of social good <https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/15995>, 2021(International Journal of Communication, w/ Nick Couldry) | Algorithmic visibility and bottom-up authoritarianism in the Brazilian crisis <http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/4042/>, 2019 (PhD, LSE) | Considering algorithmic ethical subjectivation <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305118768301>, 2018 (Social Media + Society)