Controversies surrounding social media platforms have provided opportunities for institutional reflexivity amongst users and regulators on how to understand and govern platforms. Amidst contestation, platform companies have continued to enact projects that draw upon existing modes of privatized governance. We investigate how social media companies have attempted to achieve closure by continuing to set the terms around platform governance. We investigate two projects implemented by Facebook (Meta)—authenticity regulation and privacy controls—in response to the Russian Interference and Cambridge Analytica controversies surrounding the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. Drawing on Goffman’s metaphor of stage management, we analyze the techniques deployed by Facebook to reinforce a division between what is visible and invisible to the user experience. These platform governance projects propose to act upon front-stage data relations: information that users can see from other users—whether that is content that users can see from “bad actors”, or information that other users can see about oneself. At the same time, these projects relegate back-stage data relations—information flows between users constituted by recommendation and targeted advertising systems—to invisibility and inaction. As such, Facebook renders the user experience actionable for governance, while foreclosing governance of back-stage data relations central to the economic value of the platform. As social media companies continue to perform platform governance projects following controversies, our paper invites reflection on the politics of these projects. By destabilizing the boundaries drawn by platform companies, we open space for continuous reflexivity on how platforms should be understood and governed.

围绕社交媒体平台的争议为用户和监管机构反思如何理解和治理平台提供了机会。在争论中，平台公司继续利用现有私有化治理模式实施项目。我们调查了社交媒体公司如何试图通过继续围绕平台治理制定条款来实现关闭。我们调查了 Facebook (Meta) 实施的两个项目——真实性监管和隐私控制——以回应围绕 2016 年美国总统选举的俄罗斯干扰和剑桥分析争议。借鉴戈夫曼的舞台管理比喻，我们分析了 Facebook 所部署的技术，以加强用户体验可见和不可见之间的划分。这些平台治理项目建议根据前端数据关系采取行动：用户可以从其他用户那里看到的信息，无论是用户可以从“坏人”那里看到的内容，还是其他用户可以看到的关于自己的信息。与此同时，这些项目将后台数据关系（由推荐和定向广告系统构成的用户之间的信息流）降级为不可见和不作为。因此，Facebook 使用户体验可用于治理，同时排除了对平台经济价值至关重要的后台数据关系的治理。随着社交媒体公司在争议之后继续执行平台治理项目，我们的论文邀请人们对这些项目的政治进行反思。通过打破平台公司划定的界限，我们为如何理解和治理平台提供了持续反省的空间。