Centering on social media’s public- and profit-oriented nature, this study theorizes how social media users are empowered and constrained when participating in platform governance through user-initiated expressions on platforms. The empirical analysis focuses on user responses before and after Elon Musk’s official acquisition of Twitter, utilizing cluster analysis and topic modeling to examine the volume and content of related discourses among different Twitter user groups. Our results point to user constraint in platform governance. Although a diverse set of users, such as partisans, bots, and cryptocurrency enthusiasts, spoke up, they had diverging and sometimes conflicting objectives; and partisans dominated the conversations. There was an upsurge in user volume and activity level post-acquisition among liberal users, whose critical voices on platform governance might have bolstered platform business. Potential bots also increased in volume and amplified political topics. Our findings shed light on the challenges of user-driven platform governance, underscoring the complex interplay between platform users, economy, and governance.

中文翻译：

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平台治理中的授权还是约束？ Twitter 用户对埃隆·马斯克收购反应的分析


本研究围绕社交媒体的公共性和营利性本质，理论探讨了社交媒体用户通过平台上的主动表达参与平台治理时如何被赋权和受到约束。实证分析主要关注埃隆·马斯克正式收购 Twitter 前后的用户反应，利用聚类分析和主题建模来考察不同 Twitter 用户群体之间相关话语的数量和内容。我们的结果表明平台治理中的用户约束。尽管有不同的用户（例如党派、机器人和加密货币爱好者）发声，但他们的目标各不相同，有时甚至是相互冲突的；党派主导了谈话。自由派用户在收购后的用户量和活动水平大幅上升，他们对平台治理的批评声音可能会提振平台业务。潜在的机器人数量也有所增加，并扩大了政治话题。我们的研究结果揭示了用户驱动的平台治理的挑战，强调了平台用户、经济和治理之间复杂的相互作用。