She rarely gives interviews, so this was a rare opportunity to meet YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and learn more about her understanding of good content governance and the strategic direction of the video platform. On Thursday, 10 February, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz spoke with Susan Wojcicki about the topic "Great Expectations: What Research Expects from Platforms and Platforms from Research".
In the conversation, both Susan Wojcicki and Wolfgang Schulz emphasised the importance of collaboration between science and platforms:
"Academics play a key role to give a transparent understanding of platforms“, said Susan Wojcicki. YouTube has realised that it needs to open up more and provide researchers with more tools to have a better understanding of how the platform works. "The more academics and lawmakers understand YouTube’s content regulations, the more aligned we will be in our understanding of platform governance. That will be beneficial for all of us.”
"As lawyers, we become more and more interested in how platforms create their content regulations. They apply a mental model that is similar to the mental model lawmakers use when making law," said Wolfgang Schulz."
The event, which was held in English, was moderated by Prof. Dr. Matthias C. Kettemann. The recording of the conversation can be watched on TIDE Hamburg's YouTube channel and will be shown on TIDE's linear TV programme on Thursday, 17 February at 8:15 p.m. CET.
The event will open the distinguished talk series "Insights and Power", organised by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz and Prof. Dr. Matthias C. Kettemann within the framework of the Private Ordering Observatory. In the series, leading internet scholars and platform managers will engage in discussions. Together, they will explore the question of what knowledge is essential for impact-oriented platform research, how knowledge can be transferred to platforms and regulators, and how cross-disciplinary, international platform research can be successfully funded and conducted.
The talk series is organised by the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI), the Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) and the Global Network for Internet and Society Research Centres (NoC), which brings together more than 100 research centres on the Internet and society. The HBI has recently established a Private Ordering Observatory, a Digital Disinformation Hub and a Social Media Observatory Social Media Observatory. The HIIG has recently established the Platform Governance Archive.