Of Activists and Platforms: Digital Rights Activism, Business Power and Political Alignments in the Digital Economy

Under what conditions do business and civil society groups form heterogeneous lobbying coalitions? While previous research has investigated the conditions for successful cooperation between these "strange bedfellows", there has been less work on when and why their policy preferences align in the first place. This article studies this question in the case of the digital economy, focusing on the relationship between platform companies and digital rights activists. It argues that intermediary regulation shapes patterns of interest group contestation: When intermediary regulation seeks to constrain citizens’ online freedoms, the preferences of digital rights groups and platform companies align. Conversely, when intermediary regulation seeks to limit the discretionary power of platforms or of other intermediaries to empower citizens and platform-dependent businesses, the preferences of activists and intermediaries diverge. The results of a discourse network analysis of four European Union stakeholder consultations in the areas of data protection, online content, and Internet traffic management support the theoretical argument. By analyzing under what conditions digital rights groups and platform companies share preference regarding the regulation of digital markets, the article contributes to our understanding of the political cleavages shaping digital capitalism.