The Clash of Communications: Geopoliticisation of Platforms and the Future of Communication Research

At the beginning of the 2020s, governments around the world are weighing in on digital platform companies, and the algorithms designed for profit maximisation are being repurposed to further the goals of geopolitics. Synthesising recent scholarship in platform studies, critical political economy, media policy and global communication, this chapter presents three arguments: (1) a defining feature of our time is conflicts over and among digital platforms; (2) geopolitics has become essential to our understanding of digital media operations; and (3) “communications”, in the plural, now constitute a central battleground full of trenches and barbed wires, much more than a sleek online shopping mall. The borders among platforms are now fault lines of struggle among state and non-state actors. As a result, media and communication researchers must examine geopolitics front and centre in analysing digital platforms. We need to reconnect with past scholarship in international relations and regional studies, through the lens of realism, liberalism and constructivism as well as age-old concepts such as metis and rimlands.