Communicating Digital Creative Labour under Algorithmic Governance in Platform Economies

Abstract

Purpose: On platforms like TikTok and Instagram, a creator's livelihood depends entirely on being seen. This study investigates how platform algorithms restrict digital creators through official corporate rules. We explore how tech companies use institutional communications to exert structural and symbolic power over digital content creators.   Methods: Using critical discourse analysis, we examined official platform rulebooks, including algorithm policies, community guidelines, and moderation manuals. By analyzing the specific language within these documents, we traced how corporate wording subtly dictates the power balance between platforms and creators.   Findings: Platforms strategically use passive voice, moral framing, and dense technical jargon to obscure authority while steering creator behavior. By framing visibility as both a reward and a constant risk, platforms force creators into internalized surveillance. Creators consequently mold their content and personalities to fit underlying algorithmic logic.   Originality: Previous research often treats algorithms as opaque technical black boxes, frequently and completely overlooking the institutional texts mediating this control. This study fills that gap by introducing linguistic algorithmic governmentality. We demonstrate that platform guidelines are disciplinary technologies translating cold code into behavioral norms. Theoretically, this extends Foucaultian governmentality and the critical political economy of communication into the platform era. It proves digital power is enforced through strategic corporate language, reshaping how we understand digital subjectivity and creative labor governance within contemporary digital media ecosystems.