Postdigital epistemic violence

Abstract

Postdigital epistemic violence encompasses a large variety of harms that occur through speech acts about the lived experiences of knowers from marginalised or minoritised groups in online environments using digital and smart technology. Knowers may be silenced, gaslit, trolled or doxed because of structural prejudicial stereotypes about their sex, gender, ethnicity, and so on. These epistemic practices result in the deflation of their testimony, and the inflation of the credibility of other speakers to produce dysfunctions in the knowledge economy. The knowledge of the powerful and advantaged prevail over other kinds of knowing, resulting in epistemic violence