Digital Platforms as Supranational Regulators: Reconfiguring State Power in the Digital Era

Abstract

This article examines that digital platforms are emerging as supranational regulatory actors, reshaping how states exercise authority in the digital era. In the context of globalized, digitalized and networked economies, technology conglomerates arguably consolidate forms of normative power that parallel certain state functions, thereby unsettling conventional understandings of sovereignty. Central to this process is data, treated as a strategic asset that allows platforms to influence social and economic behaviors through coercion, incentives, and more subtle persuasive techniques. The article also examines how states, facing the complexity of digital ecosystems, informally delegate regulatory functions to private actors, which generates structural dependence on platform infrastructures. This privatized form of functional sovereignty, grounded in data control and automated governance, raises important challenges that legal frameworks are only beginning to address, underscoring enduring power asymmetries that often privilege corporate interests over democratic pluralism.