CTS researcher has won the Top Paper Award
Diyi Liu, a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Tracking and Society, has won the Top Paper Award at the Communication Law and Policy Division of the International Communication Association’s (ICA) 2025 Annual Conference for her work “The Balancing Acts: Communicating Legitimacy in Global Speech Governance”. The paper has also been published in Social Media + Society.
Diyi recently completed her PhD at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, with a thesis that examined platformised speech governance in global contexts through the lens of legitimation. Her research analyses how TikTok - a user-generated content platform originating from China - interacts with local actors in South and Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia and Pakistan. The work explored fundamental questions about how rules and norms that enable or constrain (online) public expression are legitimised, and by whom.
Since beginning her postdoctoral position in May 2025, Diyi has been contributing to the Power over Platforms project with Prof. Rasmus Kleis Nielsen.