The Long and Winding Road to Platform Regulation: Policy Frictions and TNC Governance in Latin America

Proposal for Panel 1. Tech Governance and Digital Policy Development The rise of Transportation Network Companies (TNCs), such as Uber, Lyft, Bolt, or DiDi, has redefined urban mobility services worldwide, exposing regulatory gaps and challenging existing governance frameworks. This proposal examines the divergent trajectories of platform regulation in three Latin American countries—Chile, Colombia, and Costa Rica—through the lens of platform-policy frictions, a conceptual framework that highlights the tensions and negotiations between the universal aspirations of platform capitalism and the particularities of local regulatory environments. Focusing on the dynamics of ride-hailing platform governance, the study explores how policy frictions emerge from structural, political, and cultural mismatches between global platform strategies and local policy frameworks. After more than 10 years since the arrival of TNCs in Latin America, while Chile has enacted a regulatory framework, Colombia and Costa Rica continue to grapple with legislative inertia and fragmented policy responses. By analyzing these cases, the proposal sheds light on how policy diffusion interacts with local institutional contexts to produce unique regulatory outcomes, challenging the narrative of seamless digital governance. Furthermore, it discusses the implications of these frictions for digital policy development in the era of AI, particularly as emerging technologies introduce new layers of complexity to governance and political accountability. This contribution advances the literature on platform governance by demonstrating how policy frictions operate not only as barriers to regulation but also as arenas for contestation and adaptation in the Global South, offering valuable lessons for global tech policy and the governance of digital technologies.