Governance of Digital Platforms and Latin American Electoral Processes

Abstract

The article examines how academic literature and institutional documents have conceptualized the governance of digital platforms in Latin American electoral processes. Through an integrative review and the analysis of institutional documents, the study identifies dominant approaches, convergences, tensions, and analytical limitations that permeate the field. The body of sources examined shows that, although there is growing recognition that platforms perform ordering functions with relevant public effects, the debate remains fragmented and is often centered on content moderation, disinformation, or political advertising, without an integrated articulation of the institutional arrangements that organize digital political communication. By conceptualizing platforms as private governance infrastructures, the article proposes an analytical shift toward problems of coordination, scale, and accountability, underscoring the need for interpretive frameworks capable of capturing the institutional complexity and regulatory heterogeneity of electoral processes in Latin American.