Civil rights audits as counterpublic strategy: articulating the responsibility and failure to care for marginalized communities in platform governance

This study examines civil society engagement with the 2016-2020 Airbnb and Facebook civil rights audits as counterpublic strategies to address discriminatory harms on platforms. Drawing on critical theories of (counter)publics, care work, and civil rights, we explore (1) civil society organizations' negotiations with various stakeholders in the audits, (2) the perceived utility of the audits as a platform governance mechanism, and (3) motivations behind using a civil rights framework for auditing platforms. Based on interviews and textual analysis, we find that civil society used dualistic strategies, working with and against platforms to navigate corporate and government neglect of digital harms to marginalized communities and negotiate asymmetric power structures. Groups used the audits to urge platforms to respect civil rights law while asking them to address areas beyond the existing law. They also mobilized the audits to achieve immediate 'harm reduction' from the platforms while simultaneously advocating for government regulation by demonstrating the audits' limitations. In the process, the civil society counterpublic faced challenges from the externalization of responsibility by platforms and the co-option and politicization of civil rights. As a result, we argue, the utility of the audits may ultimately lie in how their limitations and failure can be used by counterpublics to rearticulate responsibility for harm to marginalized communities in platform governance.