Asma Vranaki, Senior Lecturer in Law, School of Law, University of Bristol, UK

‘Lawyers are nowadays used to the idea that law needs to be studied in its context. This book’s major insight is that context is not merely the background to law, but rather that the web of power relationships between actors is the primary context which shapes the law and gives it meaning in action. Power is not reserved to lawmakers and platform owners – all actors have some degree of power. Thus we learn that YouTube’s copyright notice and takedown processes and its Content ID system are merely influenced by the content of law rather than determined by it, and that rights owners and content creators use these ‘legal’ structures in unexpected ways which give them new meanings. Similarly, data privacy on Facebook is not statically determined by legal texts such as laws and platform terms, but is a dynamic balance whose shifts are determined by power asserted by all players in the Facebook ecosystem. Vranaki’s use of Actor Network Theory and Foucault’s theories of power to analyse these phenomena is always illuminating, and few readers will finish this book without a new and deeper understanding of how law works.’

• Contents: 1. Introduction to Social network sites: Power, regulation and law 2. Regulating digital environments: From the Wild West to regulation to power 3. SNS as ‘assemblages’: Of power, relationality and resistance 4. YouTube, piracy and copyright: A socio-legal-technological tale 5. YouTube, copyright and power 6. Data privacy regulation on Facebook: A socio-legal-technological achievement 7. Investigating regimes of power on Facebook 8. SNS: Of regulation and power Bibliography Index

Asma Vranaki, Senior Lecturer in Law, School of Law, University of Bristol, UK

‘Lawyers are nowadays used to the idea that law needs to be studied in its context. This book’s major insight is that context is not merely the background to law, but rather that the web of power relationships between actors is the primary context which shapes the law and gives it meaning in action. Power is not reserved to lawmakers and platform owners – all actors have some degree of power. Thus we learn that YouTube’s copyright notice and takedown processes and its Content ID system are merely influenced by the content of law rather than determined by it, and that rights owners and content creators use these ‘legal’ structures in unexpected ways which give them new meanings. Similarly, data privacy on Facebook is not statically determined by legal texts such as laws and platform terms, but is a dynamic balance whose shifts are determined by power asserted by all players in the Facebook ecosystem. Vranaki’s use of Actor Network Theory and Foucault’s theories of power to analyse these phenomena is always illuminating, and few readers will finish this book without a new and deeper understanding of how law works.’

• Contents: 1. Introduction to Social network sites: Power, regulation and law 2. Regulating digital environments: From the Wild West to regulation to power 3. SNS as ‘assemblages’: Of power, relationality and resistance 4. YouTube, piracy and copyright: A socio-legal-technological tale 5. YouTube, copyright and power 6. Data privacy regulation on Facebook: A socio-legal-technological achievement 7. Investigating regimes of power on Facebook 8. SNS: Of regulation and power Bibliography Index

Asma Vranaki, Senior Lecturer in Law, School of Law, University of Bristol, UK

‘Lawyers are nowadays used to the idea that law needs to be studied in its context. This book’s major insight is that context is not merely the background to law, but rather that the web of power relationships between actors is the primary context which shapes the law and gives it meaning in action. Power is not reserved to lawmakers and platform owners – all actors have some degree of power. Thus we learn that YouTube’s copyright notice and takedown processes and its Content ID system are merely influenced by the content of law rather than determined by it, and that rights owners and content creators use these ‘legal’ structures in unexpected ways which give them new meanings. Similarly, data privacy on Facebook is not statically determined by legal texts such as laws and platform terms, but is a dynamic balance whose shifts are determined by power asserted by all players in the Facebook ecosystem. Vranaki’s use of Actor Network Theory and Foucault’s theories of power to analyse these phenomena is always illuminating, and few readers will finish this book without a new and deeper understanding of how law works.’

• Contents: 1. Introduction to Social network sites: Power, regulation and law 2. Regulating digital environments: From the Wild West to regulation to power 3. SNS as ‘assemblages’: Of power, relationality and resistance 4. YouTube, piracy and copyright: A socio-legal-technological tale 5. YouTube, copyright and power 6. Data privacy regulation on Facebook: A socio-legal-technological achievement 7. Investigating regimes of power on Facebook 8. SNS: Of regulation and power Bibliography Index