As online activities and experiences are increasingly mediated through digital platforms, a series of scandals and ‘public shocks’ (Ananny & Gillespie, 2017)have raised concerns about privacy and security, the misuse of user data, algorithmic biases, and the public distribution of objectionable and sometimes abhorrent content through the internet (Flew, Martin, & Suzor, 2019). Legislators and regulators in many countries are now engaged in public enquiries and the development of new laws to apply public interest standards to digital platforms, as First Amendment arguments about freedom of online expression and claims that the platforms are simply intermediaries are increasingly under challenge (Napoli, 2019).
This special issue proposes to view such questions from the perspective of trust. International surveys have documented a decline in trust in social, political institutions over time, including rising distrust of the media (Edelman, 2019). Manifestations of declining public trust are variously seen in the rise of populist political movements (Norris & Ingelhart, 2019), concerns about ‘fake news’ and ‘deepfakes’ (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017), and scandals surrounding leading public institutions, from financial institutions and digital platform companies to political parties and religious organizations. Trust is a multifaceted concept, and important contributions have been made to the field from philosophy, political science, sociology and economics, as well as communication and media studies. To take one example, the concept of a public sphere rests upon an underlying degree of trust in journalists and the organizations involved in the production and distribution of news and information (Coleman, 2012).
