Abstract

The article presents a typology of platform regulation. After a critical review of a multidisciplinary set of definitions of digital platform, the paper emphasizes the transformative capacity of platforms in relation to the whole architecture of the internet. Then, regulative approaches to digital platforms are categorized into four ideal types on the base of two political dimensions of platform regulation: the source of regulation and the object of regulation. Finally, the paper discusses the policy principle of digital sovereignty as a type of internet regulation, which is particularly useful to understand recent policy initiatives designed by the European Union to deal with the challenges and opportunities of global internet governance