The politics of online participation : how the DSA shapes digital citizenship across stakeholders

Abstract

The Digital Services Act is a European Union regulatory framework for digital services, aiming to increase platform transparency and accountability, establishing a rights-respecting digital environment, thus having implications for digital citizenship enactment and online participation. This thesis broadens the analytical scope of previous research, moving beyond legal, policy, and governance perspectives, by examining how different theoretical perspectives on digital citizenship help in interpreting the DSA and its implications, from its proposal to its total enforcement. Employing a qualitative content analysis approach, this study analyzes DSA-related public communications of stakeholders being closely involved in the legislative process; the European Union, online platforms, and civil society. The results indicate that the most prominent strands of digital citizenship in stakeholders’ communications were critical, radical and European digital citizenship, hence enriching existing research by illuminating that, regarding digital policies, some aspects of online participation are deemed more significant than others by stakeholders shaping the legislative process. Finally, the results yield policy and theoretical implications for understanding digital citizenship vis-à-vis the DSA, having further implications for future research.