From Platform Safety to Democratic Resilience: A Comparative Study of DigitalCommunication Governance in the European Union and the United Kingdom

Abstract

This article examines how digital platform regulation reshapes communication governance, media
accountability, and democratic resilience through a comparative case study of the European Union’s Digital
Services Act and the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act. The study argues that platform governance has
become a central arena of communication policy because algorithmic distribution, recommender systems,
advertising infrastructures, and automated moderation increasingly mediate public discourse, journalism
visibility, political communication, and civic trust. Drawing on comparative media systems theory, platform
governance scholarship, institutional political communication, and socio-technical governance analysis, the
article investigates how two advanced democratic regulatory systems translate public-interest communication
values into enforceable obligations for digital platforms. Empirically, the study analyzes legal texts,
regulatory guidance, institutional reports, platform transparency mechanisms, digital participation indicators,
and international policy documents from the European Commission, Ofcom, UNESCO, OECD, World Bank,
ITU, and Reuters Institute. The comparison reveals that the EU model prioritizes systemic-risk governance,
transparency, auditing, and cross-border regulatory coordination, whereas the UK model emphasizes safetyby-design, risk assessment, illegal-content enforcement, and child protection through a centralized
communications regulator. The findings indicate that platform accountability influences democratic
resilience through three causal mechanisms: information integrity, institutional coordination, and
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communication legitimacy. The article contributes to Communication and Media Studies by theorizing
digital platform regulation as an institutional communication infrastructure that links media governance,
public trust, digital citizenship, and social development outcomes.