New platform norms are negotiated publicly and then hard-coded into the software

Evidence

Ferriss discusses two competing norms and explains why he chose one of them. It is through these types of public discussions and micro-interactions that the norms of an emerging technology are worked out within a social group. Eventually some controversies were settled by the technology; the emerging practice of re-tweeting was incorporated into Twitter’s software and people no longer argued that it was an illegitimate use of the site. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 238

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines how ‘norm entrepreneurship’ works on social platforms — norms emerge from debate then get fixed in code.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s ‘Grafting & Growth’ article theme of infrastructure hardening informal practice into structure. — connects to: Platforms’ private rules affect users more than the law does — Tarleton Gillespie, Custodians of the Internet: Platforms,…, 121; Platform rules are retroactive tombstones marking past public controversies — Tarleton Gillespie, Custodians of the Internet: Platforms,…, 218; Platform moderation evolves through public negotiation rather than fixed rule enforcement. — Tarleton Gillespie, Custodians of the Internet: Platforms,…, 516