Response Formation

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Chapter 5 examines how recognition and agenda-setting evolve into attempts at governance. For years, Washington treated Silicon Valley as a national asset, celebrating innovation while sidestepping regulation. By 2018, that posture gave way to scrutiny, as crises like Cambridge Analytica forced lawmakers to confront the costs of neglect. The Zuckerberg hearings marked a turn: not decisive reform but the beginning of response formation. This stage highlights three mechanisms through which institutions adapt—bricolage, the recombination of existing rules under pressure; layering, the addition of new oversight onto entrenched regimes; and displacement, rare but more disruptive, where old structures give way to new ones. Each mechanism reflects different thresholds of political will and urgency. Social media responses show layering, crypto illustrates jurisdictional bricolage, and AI reveals reliance on legacy categories. By contrasting these with the centralized nuclear response, the chapter shows how crisis fuels flexible governance, where uneven responses reflect adaptation rather than failure.</jats:p>