Fernando van der Vlist, PhD, is a scholar, graphic designer, and educator specialising in digital media and technology, with a focus on critical internet and platform studies. He is currently Assistant Professor in Critical Data & AI in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), where he also coordinates the Master’s programme in Cultural Data & AI. His research focuses on the critical study of digital platforms and apps, their ecosystems, data, and artificial intelligence (AI) in culture and society.

🔍📦  He is PI (Principal Investigator) of the NWO-funded Veni project ‘AI Power: A Critical Platform Analysis’ (2025–2029) and co-director of the international App Studies Initiative (ASI). 👥 He is also affiliated with the UvA’s Digital Methods Initiative (DMI), the Public Data Lab, and the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) at the Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research (AIHR, UvA).

🔍 Platforms, AI, & Society—His work spans critical platform studies, app studies, and data studies, with contributions published in leading interdisciplinary and specialist journals, including Big Data & Society, New Media & Society, Social Media + Society, Internet Policy Review, AI & Society, Convergence, Internet Histories, and Computational Culture. In addition to publishing in leading interdisciplinary and specialist journals, he is also the author of The Platform as Ecosystem (2022), and co-editor of Governing the Digital Society (AUP, 2025). His research has been supported by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), the German Research Foundation (DFG), and the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), amongst others.

🕓 Prior to his current role, Fernando held research positions in the ‘Governing the Digital Society’ (GDS) focus area at Utrecht University (UU) and the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre 1187 ‘Media of Cooperation’ at the University of Siegen. He has also taught in media and culture studies and digital methods at the UvA, UU, and Utrecht Data School (UDS).

🎓 He received his PhD from Utrecht University in 2022 with the dissertation The Platform as Ecosystem: Configurations and Dynamics of Governance and Power, jointly supervised by Prof. José van Dijck (UU) and Prof. Carolin Gerlitz (University of Siegen). The study offers critical empirical, theoretical, and innovative methodological insights into the governance and power structures of digital platform ecosystems. In addition to his academic work, Fernando has professional experience as a graphic (information) designer, combining research and design expertise in his publications and teaching.

🔗 You can find more at fernandovandervlist.nl or follow him on Google Scholar, 𝕏 (Twitter), Bluesky, LinkedIn.

Fernando is an ‘early-career researcher’ with 10+ years of experience in academic research and publishing (3+ years post-PhD). 🔍 His research focuses on the critical study of digital platforms and apps, their ecosystems, data, and artificial intelligence (AI) in culture and society. His work spans critical internet and platform studies, app studies, digital methods, software studies, and critical data and AI studies. He has contributed foundational conceptual and methodological frameworks for analysing digital infrastructures, platform governance, and power dynamics within platform ecosystems—advancing key debates on platformisation, appification, and datafication.

His empirical work has addressed, amongst others, the ‘industrialisation’ and political economy of AI and cloud infrastructure (‘Big AI’), platform power in the global audience data economy, and structural shifts in digital marketing and ad-tech. He has studied the evolution of ‘API governance’ and partnership strategies in Facebook’s platform evolution, as well as broader infrastructural dependencies across platform ecosystems. His work on apps includes pioneering empirical and methodological studies on the global culture and political economy of ‘super-apps’ (including the process of ‘super-appification’), app store governance and content moderation during the COVID-19 pandemic (also the first global landscape study of COVID apps), and the development of historical methods for studying platform and app ecosystems (called ‘platform historiography’).

📚 Fernando has (co-)authored and edited 45+ scholarly publications (cited 1,300+ times; 17 h-index). His work has appeared in leading interdisciplinary and field-specific journals, including Big Data & Society (interdisciplinary social sciences), New Media & Society (sociology), and Social Media + Society (communication), as well as specialised journals, such as Internet Policy Review (internet regulation), AI & Society (artificial intelligence), Convergence (media studies), Internet Histories and TMG – Journal for Media History (media history), Surveillance & Society (surveillance studies), and Computational Culture (software studies). He is the author of The Platform as Ecosystem: Configurations and Dynamics of Governance and Power (2022) and co-editor of Governing the Digital Society: Platforms, Artificial Intelligence, and Public Values (AUP, 2025—with José van Dijck, Karin van Es, & Anne Helmond), the ASI Sprint Report Series (since 2024—with Esther Weltevrede), and guest co-editor of a special issue on ‘Apps and Infrastructures’ (Computational Culture, 2019—with Carolin Gerlitz, Anne Helmond, & David Nieborg). ✨ His articles on ‘Big AI’ and ‘Facebook’s evolution’ are amongst the most-cited in Big Data & Society (past 3 years) and Internet Histories (all time). His first (solo-authored) article was published in Big Data & Society in February 2016.

 👥 His co-authors and collaborators include Anne Helmond, Esther Weltevrede, David Nieborg, Carolin Gerlitz, Michael Dieter, Nathaniel Tkacz, Sam Hind, José van Dijck, Karin van Es, and Thomas Poell. He co-founded and directs the App Studies Initiative—an international research collective dedicated to the critical study of apps and platforms, including their software and data infrastructures, cultures, histories, political economy, and governance—in 2016, and has been affiliated with the UvA’s Digital Methods Initiative since 2014 and the Public Data Lab since 2020.

🗓 He has (co-)organised and participated in 100+ academic conferences, workshops, and data ‘sprints’—including as invited speaker or keynote. Amongst them are the annual Digital Methods Summer and Winter Schools (DMI, UvA), and meetings of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) and the International Communication Association (ICA). From 2016–2018, he served as programme coordinator for the annual Digital Methods Summer and Winter Schools at the UvA, having been involved in their organisation since 2014.

💲 His research has received funding support from several national research councils, including the Dutch Research Council (NWO), the German Research Foundation (DFG), and the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), as well as from other organisations. He was awarded a Veni grant (€320,000) from the Dutch Research Council (NWO Talent Programme) for his project ‘AI Power: A Critical Platform Analysis’ (2025–2029), co-applicant on a CAIS Working Groups grant from the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (€7,600; 2019–2020), and on (a subproject in) the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre 1187 ‘Media of Cooperation’ (€439,800 of €9,380,900; 2020–2023), and contributor on the ESRC-funded ‘COVID-19 App Store and Data Flow Ecologies’ Rapid Response project (£48,278; 2020–2021). 🏅 He also received awards and nominations for his design work.

🧩 Fernando (co-)develops open-access datasets, software tools, and teaching resources for platform and app studies that are widely used in academic and educational settings. Additionally, he contributes to expert and policy consultations on online platforms and the digital economy, including for the European Union, the Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM), the Rathenau Instituut, and the Dutch political party D66. 📰His research has been featured in academic and journalistic media, including the Rathenau Instituut’s podcast Verrekijkers, and NRC. His design work has also been highlighted in De Grote Rotterdamse Kunstkalender (Trichis Publishing, 2014), and Dutch design magazine Items (Stichting Design Items, 2012).

🎓 He obtained his PhD from Utrecht University in 2022 with the dissertation The Platform as Ecosystem: Configurations and Dynamics of Governance and Power, jointly supervised by Prof. José van Dijck at UU and Prof. Carolin Gerlitz (University of Siegen). The study offers critical empirical, theoretical, and innovative methodological insights into the governance and power structures of digital platform ecosystems.

📧 Fernando is available to (co-)supervise PhD candidates whose research aligns with his areas of expertise. He is currently (co-)supervisor of Nuoyi Wang (with Prof. Thomas Poell), whose doctoral project explores the evolving global dynamics of platform power in generative AI ecosystems.

AI Power: A Critical Platform Analysis (2025–2029)

Funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO Talent Programme – Veni)

Summary

🔍 Who controls AI?—This project investigates how artificial intelligence (AI) power is consolidating globally—driven by Big Tech’s control over infrastructure, finance, and product ecosystems. While public debate often focuses on generative AI apps like ChatGPT, this research foregrounds the broader ‘industrialisation’ and systemic integration of AI across sectors.

The project develops an interdisciplinary and methods-driven approach, combining digital methods (e.g. infrastructural and financial mapping, network visualisation, technographic software analysis) with critical perspectives from media and platform studies, political economy, and governance studies. It uncovers the hidden infrastructures, power dynamics, and economic dependencies underpinning the global AI ecosystem.

The research pursues three interrelated objectives:

1. Mapping the economic and infrastructural dynamics of AI power—investigating how investments, acquisitions, and infrastructure strategies shape platform ecosystems;
2. Investigating Big Tech’s influence on AI ecosystems—examining how platform-driven AI reshapes sectors, governance frameworks, and social structures;
3. Informing governance strategies—considering pathways to address market concentration and digital dependency with a focus on Europe’s strategic ambitions.

By providing empirical and theoretical insight and critically examining current developments, the project supports efforts to make AI systems more transparent, equitable, and aligned with Europe’s goals for digital sovereignty and resilience.

ℹ️ This project is funded through the NWO Talent Programme (Veni). Veni grants are awarded to outstanding early-career researchers who have recently completed their PhD. The grant supports three years of independent, academically innovative research and fosters the transition to research independence.

Fernando has broad teaching experience at the Bachelor’s and Master’s level. Currently, since 2023, he serves as programme coordinator for the newly-developed Master’s in Cultural Data & AI (MA Media Studies, since September 2024). He also teaches in the English-taught Bachelor’s programmes Media and Information (Media Studies) and the newly-developed (interdisciplinary and bilingual) Global Arts, Culture and Politics (Arts and Culture, since September 2023), where he was also part of the development team for its ‘The Human and AI’ track. He contributes to curriculum development across degree programmes and departments (Media Studies, Arts and Culture), with a focus on integrating critical perspectives on platforms, data, and AI. Media Studies at the UvA is one of the field’s foremost departments, and consistently ranks as or amongst the top programmes worldwide.

🔖 A (partial) overview of his current teaching activities is available via the UvA Course Catalogue (2025–2026; see also: 2024–2025, 2023–2024).

🕓 Since 2014, Fernando has taught, designed, and coordinated 35+ Bachelor’s and Master’s-level courses, and also gave several invited guest lectures and seminars. He has held teaching roles in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam and the Department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University, including its (semi-independent) Utrecht Data School (UDS). In 2016, he also taught an extramural course on digital methods for Dutch public management professionals at UDS, where he also facilitated several embedded research projects with external partners.

🧑‍🏫 His teaching reflects an interdisciplinary, research-led approach informed by his expertise in digital methods, platform studies, and critical data infrastructures, and often involves hands-on workshops, empirical projects, and engagement with live and archived web data.

💼 Fernando previously held research positions at Utrecht University and the University of Siegen. From 2020–2023, he was a (postdoctoral) researcher in the interdisciplinary focus area ‘Governing the Digital Society’ (GDS) at Utrecht University. From 2016–2023, he contributed to the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre 1187 ‘Media of Cooperation’ as a research associate at the University of Siegen. He was a PhD candidate from 2019–2022, jointly supervised by Prof. José van Dijck (Utrecht University) and Prof. Carolin Gerlitz (University of Siegen).

Before his doctoral research, Fernando held several academic (research and teaching) positions at Utrecht University (UU) and the University of Amsterdam (UvA). He taught as a Lecturer in New Media and Digital Culture and Digital Methods in the Department of Media Studies at the UvA (2014–2018), in the Department of Media and Culture Studies at UU (2016, 2022–2023), and at its Utrecht Data School (2016). In 2016, while at UU, he also worked as a researcher in the ERC-funded project ‘Digital Crossings in Europe’ (CONNECTINGEUROPE), providing consultation on digital methods and online mapping methodologies to a team of PhD and postdoc researchers.

📐 Alongside his academic work, Fernando has professional experience as a graphic (information) designer, combining design expertise with research in his publications and teaching.

🎓 He received his PhD from Utrecht University in 2022 with the dissertation The Platform as Ecosystem: Configurations and Dynamics of Governance and Power. He also holds a Research Master’s degree in Media Studies from the University of Amsterdam (2015) and a professional degree in Graphic Design (Visual Communication) from the Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences (2012). He obtained his University Teaching Qualification (UTQ) from the UvA in 2017.

🔗 You can find more at fernandovandervlist.nl/about.html, LinkedIn, and ORCID. 📧 A complete CV is available upon request.

Governing the Digital Society: Platforms, Artificial Intelligence, and Public Values

Edited by José van Dijck, Karin van Es, Anne Helmond, and Fernando van der Vlist (alphabetical order)

Abstract

Digital technologies have rapidly become integral to communities and societies, bringing both significant benefits and serious concerns. Issues such as misinformation, disinformation, online polarization, discrimination, and widening inequalities have prompted a critical and urgent debate: Can digital societies still be effectively governed? This book brings together insights from various disciplines to address the pressing question: “How can we develop and apply principles of (good) governance in digital societies that are organized democracies?”

Governing the Digital Society presents a range of governance approaches, focusing on online platforms, artificial intelligence, and the public values that underpin these technologies. The authors position themselves at the forefront of their disciplines, offering perspectives from law, critical data studies, urban studies, science and technology studies, computational linguistics, and the political economy of media. Expert interviews provide additional insights into ongoing efforts to tackle the challenges of governing digital societies. The book demonstrates that governance is not just a technical or legal process but a complex societal one, embedding norms, values, and morality into our institutions and daily lives.

📋 To cite (APA): van Dijck, J., van Es, K., Helmond, A., & van der Vlist, F. (Eds.) (2025). Governing the Digital Society: Platforms, Artificial Intelligence, and Public Values. (Digital Studies). Amsterdam, NL: Amsterdam University Press. DOI: 10.5117/9789048562718.

Reviews and Features

“In an age where platforms and AI are compromising the missions of our public sectors, the influence of tech tycoons has pervaded the political sphere and the world is aflood with digitally generated and sustained misinformation, how can – and should – digital societies be governed? This is the question this accessible, multi-disciplinary and comprehensive volume seeks to answer. It will be valuable to anyone, in academia and beyond, concerned with safeguarding our public values in the current tide of digitalization as a non-democratic and profit-seeking force.” —Tamar Sharon, Professor of Philosophy, Digitalization & Society, Radboud University Nijmegen

“This timely edited volume poses the urgent question of how digital societies can be effectively governed in an era where digital platforms and AI systems have become core socio-technical infrastructures. Grounded in robust theoretical frameworks, this book delivers rigorous, interdisciplinary research substantiated by empirical studies.” —Jo Pierson, Professor of Responsible Digitalisation & Head of School of Social Sciences, University Hasselt

“What is the meaning of “good governance” in democratic digital societies? How can these spheres foster safety, inclusion, and transparency? Drawing on diverse case studies, this excellent volume demonstrates that there are no simple answers; advancing one value often compromises another. Offering a rich account of the intersections between stakeholders and the technologies they build, manage, and consume, Governing the Digital Society is an essential resource for scholars and practitioners working to shape better digital futures.” —Limor Shifman, Professor at the Department of Communication and Journalism, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel & the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences

“Governing the Digital Society examines whether digital societies can still be effectively governed. This volume brings together scholars exploring emerging issues—such as decentralized platforms and AI regulation – with those offering new analytical perspectives on existing debates, including content moderation and spyware. Through research and expert interviews, it offers critical insights into the future of digital governance.” —Robyn Caplan, Assistant Professor of Technology Policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University

The Platform as Ecosystem: Configurations and Dynamics of Governance and Power

Abstract

Digital ‘platforms’ owned and operated by powerful Big Tech companies have shaped and impacted social, economic, and political life in significant ways. Yet, platforms remain an ambiguous phenomenon. What exactly are these platforms? How can we identify and understand the features of their power?

The Platform as Ecosystem explains how not merely the platforms themselves but especially their larger ‘ecosystems’ are important for understanding the unique features of platform governance and power. Platform ecosystems have become the dominant technological, organisational, and governance model for digital platforms over the past fifteen years. These ecosystems comprise many different types of users including end-consumers, software developers, marketers and advertisers, and business partners who build software tools, products, and services of their own ‘on top’ of the interfaces provided and controlled by leading platforms. These users each help build and expand platform ecosystems while negotiating governance and control by central platforms.

This dissertation examines different aspects of platform ecosystems to determine how platforms’ material foundations or infrastructures relate to governance and power. It develops several novel empirical and historical approaches for studying the distinct material and relational features of digital platform ecosystems. This reveals how platforms derive considerable power from their ecosystems and provides unique empirical and historical insights into the technological, organisational, and evolutionary features of platform (and mobile app) ecosystems. These approaches and insights are relevant to digital media and platform researchers and help policymakers, regulators, and authorities worldwide dealing with the challenges of governing digital economies and societies.

ℹ️ Submitted to the Board for the Conferral of Doctoral Degrees at Utrecht University in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).

📋 To cite (APA): van der Vlist, F.N. (2022). The Platform as Ecosystem: Configurations and Dynamics of Governance and Power (PhD Thesis). Utrecht, NL: Utrecht University. DOI: 10.33540/1284.

Key findings and conclusions

This PhD thesis offers significant empirical insights into the governance and power dynamics of digital platforms owned by Big Tech companies. The study emphasizes the importance of platform ecosystems in understanding platform governance and power, in addition to the platforms themselves.

• Platform ecosystems: The research identifies platform ecosystems as the dominant model for digital ‘platforms’ over the past fifteen years. These ecosystems play a crucial role in empowering platforms and shaping their influence.
• APIs and ‘infrastructural power’: Application programming interfaces (APIs) are essential components of platform ecosystems. They serve as the material foundations through which platforms exercise ‘infrastructural power’, influencing various stakeholders in the ecosystem.
• Technological integrations and business partnerships: The study highlights the significance of technological integrations and business partnerships in creating dependencies within platform ecosystems. These factors contribute to the strategic and infrastructural power of platforms.
• Tensions with software developers: The research uncovers various tensions between platforms and software developers. Individual developers and development companies may create apps that challenge platform terms of service, while platforms seek to maintain control over the development process.
• COVID-19 pandemic impact: A comprehensive analysis of the app ecosystem during the COVID-19 pandemic reveals the adaptive governance strategies employed by powerful gatekeepers like Google and Apple. High societal stakes led to increased editorial interventions in the crisis.

This thesis demonstrates the critical role of platform ecosystems in shaping governance and power dynamics. The findings underscore the importance of APIs, technological integrations, and business partnerships in determining the influence of platforms. Moreover, the research highlights the ongoing struggle between platforms and software developers in maintaining control over the app ecosystem. Furthermore, the study reveals how crisis-driven adaptations by major platform gatekeepers can impact the broader app ecosystem. These insights have significant implications for regulatory considerations in the digital landscape. Overall, this research advances the understanding of platform governance and power dynamics and contributes to the existing academic literature on this subject.