Despite social media companies’ public commitments to do good, they regularly face international criticism. This article explores how platforms engage in corporate public relations campaigns to negotiate social and political responsibilities. Through a qualitative analysis of the values promoted in the social initiative TikTok for Good, I show how TikTok promotes messages that amplify positivity, minimize negativity, and focus on individual well-being, while consistently assigning responsibility to other actors. Together, these strategies allow TikTok to symbolically empower users while maintaining control. I conceptualize these strategies that downplay and distance a company from conflicts associated with struggles over power as depoliticization by platforms. This study highlights platform companies’ soft forms of governance and demonstrates how the analysis of platform values allows researchers to cut through the strategic vagueness of claims to do good.

中文翻译：

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如何激发欢乐：平台企业社会活动的去政治化策略


尽管社交媒体公司公开承诺做好事，但它们经常面临国际批评。本文探讨了平台如何参与企业公关活动来协商社会和政治责任。通过对 TikTok for Good 社会倡议所宣扬的价值观进行定性分析，我展示了 TikTok 如何宣​​传增强积极性、减少消极性并关注个人福祉的信息，同时始终将责任分配给其他参与者。这些策略共同使 TikTok 能够象征性地赋予用户权力，同时保持控制权。我将这些淡化公司与权力斗争相关冲突的策略概念化为平台去政治化。这项研究强调了平台公司的软治理形式，并展示了对平台价值的分析如何使研究人员能够消除行善主张的战略模糊性。