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The Paradox of Digital Infrastructures: Polarization vs Unification on Unjected

The Paradox of Digital Infrastructures: Polarization vs Unification on Unjected

This research paper considered the app Unjected from the perspective of both margins as methods and infrastructure studies. It showcases how the affordances of the app allow for the strengthening of the unvaccinated community while at the same...
True Crime TikTok: Affording Criminal Investigation and Media Visibility in the Gabby Petito Case

True Crime TikTok: Affording Criminal Investigation and Media Visibility in the Gabby Petito Case

By: Gabrielle Aguilar, Sofia Ompolasvili, Luisa Garcia Amaya, and Sophie Kerstens On July 2, 2021, micro-influencer Gabby Petito set out on a cross-country road trip across the United States with her fiancé Brian Laundrie. Along the way, Petito hoped...
Like, swipe, match… “you vaxxed?”

Like, swipe, match… “you vaxxed?”

How Hinge and Tinder have adapted their affordances to the COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic caused a spike in dating app usage while simultaneously altering the standard dating practices. To analyze how dating apps have responded to this change,...
Sex Work Re-loaded: How Digital Platforms are re-defining Sex Work

Sex Work Re-loaded: How Digital Platforms are re-defining Sex Work

“Maybe I should start an OnlyFans” has become a well-known phrase across different platforms. This blog post explores how the dynamics of sex work have changed on online spaces by looking into the relationship between OnlyFans and Instagram, specifically...
The Big Problem with Uber’s Big Data: Ethics and Regulation of Data Ownership

The Big Problem with Uber’s Big Data: Ethics and Regulation of Data Ownership

“Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral”. That is why it is key to understand how we, as users and moderators, give additional meaning to technological features and participate in the complex chain of interactions they...

Searching vs. Browsing on YouTube

Abstract: In Stephen Ramsay’s essay entitled “The Hermeneutics of Screwing Around; or What You Do with a Million Books” he expounds on the difference between searching and browsing when completing research while simultaneously arguing that browsing-only research can eventually...
Screwing around and the value of alternative knowledge platforms 


Screwing around and the value of alternative knowledge platforms 


Through the lens of Stephen Ramsay’s concept of “screwing around”, this commentary looks at the value of alternative knowledge platforms such as Are.na as a tool to counteract the linear and restrictive roads a search engine can lead a...
The Dilemma of Prisoners on TikTok: An Analysis of the Implications of Dark Subcultures Online

The Dilemma of Prisoners on TikTok: An Analysis of the Implications of Dark Subcultures Online

By Alejandra O’Connor (oconnorale@hotmail.com), Li Shen (lshen141@gmail.com), Niall Manley (niall.m76@gmail.com) Abstract This research study analyses the content of previously-seen, crime-related online content – such as Tumblr’s True Crime Community – exploring the implications of this type of content for...
TERF Wars

TERF Wars

Oscar Fitzpatrick, Caitlin Harzem, Gerry LaBarbera Abstract: There was a time when speaking of JK Rowling would primarily include topics regarding children’s literature, or specifically the Harry Potter franchise. In 2020 much of the debate surrounding JK Rowling is...
You Can See Me Naked (After the Paywall): How OnlyFans Transforms the Online Sex Industry

You Can See Me Naked (After the Paywall): How OnlyFans Transforms the Online Sex Industry

Whereas most social media platforms ban nudity – Instagram’s User Guidelines forbid posting pictures of women’s nipples, for example – the emergent platform OnlyFans runs on nakedness. By paying a monthly subscription fee, people can now see their favourite...
What is VK and why could it be a social media platform of the future?

What is VK and why could it be a social media platform of the future?

What is the best and most well-known social network of all times? Most of the people would say Facebook. But what if somewhere in the land of forests, snow, and, of course, bears exists a social media platform, which...
On platform aesthetics: TikTok as the next level of the gamification of social exchange online

On platform aesthetics: TikTok as the next level of the gamification of social exchange online

TikTok has taken the place of being among the most recent cases in social media success history. In just two years since its global launch in 2017, the app has reached the number of 1 billion downloads in 75...
Terrorism in the Digital Era: The Dark Side of Livestreaming, Online Content and Internet Subcultures

Terrorism in the Digital Era: The Dark Side of Livestreaming, Online Content and Internet Subcultures

In the space of 26 minutes on March 15th, 2019 Brenton Tarrant, a radical right-wing extremist, opened fire on two mosques in the city of Christchurch in New Zealand killing 51 people during New Zealand’s worst mass shooting in...
Build your own community on Discord

Build your own community on Discord

Initially meant as a platform for online gaming, text and voice chat app Discord has become much more than that. It allows for communities to sprout and conversations to spark. But where do we draw the line on the...
A.I. Influencers: Preaching to the Choir?

A.I. Influencers: Preaching to the Choir?

As virtual influencers are gaining popularity on social media platforms such as Instagram, an increasing amount of money is being invested into the development of so-called A.I. influencers. Will such influencers cause a shift in the relationship between different...
Google Stadia: A new player has joined the platform wars

Google Stadia: A new player has joined the platform wars

You either die an information utility, or live long enough to adopt the politics of platforms. Imagine video games no longer being tied to the hardware boxes they’re designed for, but instead being playable anywhere, on any device. We...
Genetic Genealogy: Will your DNA have a life of its own?

Genetic Genealogy: Will your DNA have a life of its own?

Genetic Genealogy is a novel method to link DNA from a crime scene to DNA stored on Genealogy websites such as MyHeritage, 23andMe and GEDmatch. It has the potential to solve many cold cases, but on a Web that...
Picnic – tapping into the comfort of platforms

Picnic – tapping into the comfort of platforms

Cars that drive themselves, a robot serving you at a restaurant, and even skyping someone over the phone while you are commuting. Ten years ago, many of these things were unimaginable. Now in some places they are a staple...
Facebook Gaming: Live Streaming the Perils of Data Privacy

Facebook Gaming: Live Streaming the Perils of Data Privacy

The ability to record and live stream video games has completely reformed the gaming industry as it became the birthplace of popular online live streaming communities. Why do younger people today spend more time watching gaming content than playing...
Extraction and accumulation in times of platform capitalism

Extraction and accumulation in times of platform capitalism

The above visualization represents some of the core developments in what has been referred to as ‘platform capitalism’. It draws upon the small volume by Nick Srniceck with the same title. In ‘Platform Capitalism’, Srnicek explains how capitalism is...
Mission Control: The changing boundaries of control and ownership in the world’s biggest crowd funding success.

Mission Control: The changing boundaries of control and ownership in the world’s biggest crowd funding success.

The latest controversy surrounding the in development game Star Citizen, struck me as illustrative of the pitfalls and complexities of new forms of financing, and how they manifest the sunk cost fallacy in new, unexpected ways. It isn’t just...
The rise of connected cars: telematics, carrots, and ads

The rise of connected cars: telematics, carrots, and ads

The car culture, as we know it, is dying. Not because cars are going hybrid or electric, and lack of noise coming out of exhaust systems makes car lovers depressed, neither because they are “learning” to drive by themselves....
Civil: The Savior of Journalism or Just Another Blockchain Startup?

Civil: The Savior of Journalism or Just Another Blockchain Startup?

Civil wants to save quality journalism using digital tokens and blockchain. Would it foment a revolution in the industry of journalism, or is it just another product of the entrepreneurial solutionism trying to resolve a complicated situation by a simple...
The only way to save the Internet is to claim it back from Big Data

The only way to save the Internet is to claim it back from Big Data

Sometime in November, the proportion of humans on earth using the web will exceed 50%. Close to 4 billion people will have become internet “users”, bringing with them 4 billion sets of data. Tim-Berners Lee created the internet and...