The Dark Side of Digital Politics: Understanding the Algorithmic Manufacturing of Consent and the Hindering of Online Dissidence

Various strands of literature on civic engagement, ‘big data’ and open government view digital technologies as the key to easier government accountability and citizens’ empowerment, and the solution to many of the problems of contemporary democracies. Drawing on a critical analysis of contemporary Mexican social and political phenomena, and on a two-yearlong ethnography with the #YoSoy132 networked movement, this article demonstrates that digital tools have been successfully deployed by Mexican parties and governments in order to manufacture consent, sabotage dissidence, threaten activists, and gather personal data without citizens’ agreement. These new algorithmic strategies, it is contended, clearly show that there is nothing inherently democratic in digital communication technologies, and that citizens and activists have to struggle against increasingly sophisticated techniques of control and repression that exploit the very mechanisms that many consider to be emancipatory technologies

Pragmatic Visionaries: Imaginaries, Myths and Technopolitics in the 15M Movement

Este artículo examina los imaginarios sobre Internet y su influencia en las formas de apropiación tecnológica por parte de los movimientos sociales. Se incide en el concepto de mito, la sublimación digital y la retórica ciberlibertaria que mistifica el poder emancipador de Internet. Mediante un trabajo empírico basado en 37 entrevistas, tres grupos focales y observaciones participantes, se analizan los imaginarios y las prácticas mediáticas del 15M. Nuestros resultados destacan tres tensiones híbridas entre: la fe en el poder democratizador de Internet y la praxis política; la acción complementaria en el espacio virtual y físico; y el uso simultáneo de redes corporativas y medios alternativos. Se concluye que los mitos utópicos sobre Internet son negociados con la realidad de formas complejas e inspiran la acción política y la innovación tecnológica.This article examines imaginaries regarding the Internet and their inuence on the forms of technological appropriation by social movements. It focuses on the concepts of myth, the digital sublime and cyber-libertarian rhetoric that mystify the emancipatory power of the Internet. Through an empirical study based on 37 interviews, three focus groups and participant observations, the imaginaries and media practices of the Spanish 15M movement are analysed. Our results reveal three hybrid tensions between: faith in the democratizing power of the Internet and political praxis; complementary actions in virtual and physical space; and the simultaneous use of corporate networks and alternative media. We conclude that utopian myths about the Internet are negotiated with reality in complex ways and inspire political action and technological innovation

De mitos y sublimes digitales: movimientos sociales y tecnologías de la comunicación desde una perspectiva histórica

This paper aims at interpreting the relationship between social movements and communicationtechnologies, from the perspective of a set of critical frameworks which, in recent years,have warned of the processes of sublimation and creation of myths linked to the birth ofeach "new" technology. Within this context, civic movements are observed both as spacesof reproduction of enthusiastic discourses on ICTs, at the service of diverse power spheres-corporations, governments, media, etc.-, as well as of experimentation and technologicalappropriation, in which, through daily practices, a more complex and demystified perspectiveof communication technologies is produced. We propose a chronological analysis acrossthree case studies, based in different contexts, which aim at illustrating the premature approximationsto the role of communication technologies in social uprisings: the Zapatistainformational guerrilla, the 'smart mobs' in the Philippines, the 'Anomalous Wave' and the '5Stars Movement' in the Italian context. We conclude underlining the need to move towardsthe collective construction of knowledge through synergies between academia and socialmovements as a way to question techno-euphoria as well as to avoid the mistakes of the pastEl presente artículo tiene como objeto abordar la relación entre movimientos sociales y tecnologías de la comunicación, a partir de un conjunto de perspectivas críticas que advierten acerca de los procesos de sublimación y mitificación vinculados a la aparición de cada “nuevo” instrumento tecnológico. Los movimientos civiles son observados como espacios de reproducción de los discursos entusiastas en torno a las TIC que emergen de distintas instancias de poder –corporaciones, administraciones públicas, medios, academia, etc.-, pero también como escenarios de experimentación y apropiación tecnológica, en los que, a través de la práctica cotidiana, se avanza hacia una visión más compleja y desmitificada de las tecnologías informacionales. Se propone una secuencia cronológica a través de tres estudios de caso en diferentes contextos que ilustran las aproximaciones prematuras al rol de las tecnologías en un conjunto de estallidos sociales: la guerrilla informacional zapatista, las ‘multitudes inteligentes’ en Filipinas y los movimientos ‘Onda Anomala’ y ‘5 Stelle’ en el contexto italiano. Se concluye apelando a la necesidad de construcción colectiva de un saber co-participado entre academia y movimientos sociales a fin de cuestionar la tecno-euforia y evitar los errores del pasado

COVID-19 from the Margins: Narrating the COVID-19 Pandemic Through Decoloniality and Multilinguism

Born as a multilingual blog in May 2020, 'COVID-19 from the Margins' has offered a space for authors to voice the silenced narratives of the COVID-19 pandemic in any language chosen and representing multiple South(s) of the world (Milan & Treré, 2019). The blog became an open-access book in February 2021, and since then it has travelled across the globe to bring to light narratives of devoiced groups during COVID-19, generating debate on stories narrated by, amongst others, forced migrants, gig workers, ethnic minorities, people in economic poverty, and survivors of domestic violence. The project is divided into five sections - "Human Invisibilities and the Politics of Counting," "Perpetuated Vulnerabilities and Inequalities," "Datafied Social Policies," "Technological Reconfigurations in the Datafied Pandemic," and "Pandemic Solidarities and Resistance from Below" - which together contribute to the decolonial, multilingual project of narrating the COVID-19 pandemic through the voices of the systematically silenced. In this short paper, we reflect on the 'COVID-19 from the Margins' experience and on its meaning towards a decolonial, multilingual narration of the COVID-19 pandemic

Vinyl won’t save us: reframing disconnection as engagement

Disconnection has recently come to the forefront of public discussions as an antidote to an increasing saturation with digital technologies. Yet experiences with disconnection are often reduced to a form of disengagement that diminishes their political impact. Disconnective practices focused on health and well-being are easily appropriated by big tech corporations, defusing their transformative potential into the very dynamics of digital capitalism. In contrast, a long tradition of critical thought, from Joseph Weizenbaum to Jaron Lanier passing through hacktivism, demonstrates that engagement with digital technologies is instrumental to develop critique and resistance against the paradoxes of digital societies. Drawing from this tradition, this article proposes the concept of “Disconnection-through-Engagement” to illuminate situated practices that mobilize disconnection in order to improve critical engagement with digital technologies and platforms. Hybridity, anonymity, and hacking are examined as three forms of Disconnection-through-Engagement, and a call to decommodify disconnection and recast it as a source of collective critique to digital capitalism is put forward

Big Data a Partir do Sul/ dos Suis: : uma matriz analítica para investigar dados nas margens

A dataficação – por meio do qual vários aspectos da vida social são transformados em dados - é normalmente analisada de acordo a uma utilização mais eficiente dos recursos e desenvolvimento do estado/relações entre cidadãos. Mas isso pode ter conseqüências negativas para aqueles à margem da sociedade, como refugiados, indivíduos racializados, trabalhadores informais e cidadãos de países com pouco respeito aos direitos humanos. Como podemos compreender as maneiras que os desempoderados são afetados e resistem à dataficação? Este ensaio apresenta uma matriz analítica para estudar os dados que estão às margens. A matriz identifica três componentes dos dados às margens: (1) infraestrutura, enfatizando a dimensão material; (2) práticas, apontando o agenciamento nos encontros das pessoas com a dataficação; e (3) imaginários, isto é, as facetas culturais e simbólicas dos dados às margens A matriz oferece também três lentes de interpretação através das quais é possível observar os componentes: (1) decolonalidade e raça, (2) interseccionalidade e feminismo, e (3) "pluriverso". Juntos, eles ajudam a questionar a dataficação e por que certos grupos sociais são oprimidos enquanto descobrem caminhos rumo a justiça e a igualdade

The politics of disconnective media: Unraveling the materiality of discourses on disconnectivity

The commodification of disconnection has attracted growing scholarly attention. Previous research highlighted the instrumentalisation of disconnection for productivity, self-governance, and healthy life. Researchers have also explored the politics of the “products” used for disconnecting, such as smartphone applications and offline commodities. Yet, current studies generally neglect to connect digital disconnection’s symbolic and material dimensions. In this article, we critically examine the discourses of what we call “disconnective media,” the products (hardware and software) that offer disconnection from digital devices. To explain how discourses and products find a basis in material and social structures, we deploy a discourse-theoretical analysis grounded in a Marxist materialist approach to neoliberalism and the materiality of discourse. We critically analyse six disconnective media and focus on these key dimensions: justifications (why to disconnect), time/space (when/where to disconnect), devices/platforms (which devices are appropriate to disconnect from), and class (who is addressed to disconnect). Findings show that digital technologies in the workplace have been naturalised, whereas phones and social media remain problematic. Leisure time is constructed with a set of obligations to use time meaningfully and improve the self, while work time is presented through a scientific work management mindset that promotes efficiency. Disconnective media advocate the ideal image of healthy, efficient workers. This study stresses the importance of investigating disconnection concerning commodified labour and neoliberalism’s material consequences

Movimientos sociales, redes sociales y Web 2.0: el caso del Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad

Estudios empíricos han señalado que la interacción en las plataformas de los movimientos sociales suele ser muy baja, aunque otros autores argumentan que la Web 2.0 aumenta las posibilidades de participación y de interacción. Este artículo presenta un análisis cuali-cuantitativo de la página Facebook del Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad. El objetivo consiste en investigar si esta página constituye un espacio de diálogo e interacción o si en cambio prevalece una lógica de difusión de contenidos online. Los resultados revelan que Facebook aparece como espacio de publicación de informaciones, no como red para un debate participativo.Empirical studies have pointed out that interaction in the technological platforms used by social movements is usually very low, even if other authors have argued that Web 2.0 increases the possibilities for participation and interaction. This article presents a quali-quantitative analysis of the Facebook page of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity. The aim is to investigate whether this page is a space for dialogue and interaction or whether the dominant logic is the simple diffusion of online content. Results reveal that Facebook appears as a space for the publication of information, rather than a network for building a participatory debate

Activist imaginaries of the Internet: From techno-utopian myths to digital disenchantment

Este artículo explora los mitos e imaginarios sociales sobre Internet compartidos y vehiculados por el discurso académico y por los activistas de los nuevos movimientos sociales que utilizan la tecnología de forma intensiva como base de sus estrategias de organización y acción colectiva. Se indagan los discursos, imaginarios y mitos sobre la Red mediante una metodología cualitativa basada en la observación participante y en la entrevista activa a activistas de diferentes movimientos sociales. A través del análisis de los relatos de los ciberactivistas recogidos entre 2007 y 2020, se manifiesta una evolución de los mitos e imaginarios, que transitan desde una retórica ciber-libertaria utópica e idealizada hacia una creciente desmitificación de la Red como espacio distópico.This article explores the myths and the social imaginaries about the Internet, shared and conveyed by academic discourse and by activists of the new social movements that use technology intensively as the basis of their organizational strategies and collective action. Discourses, imaginaries, and myths about the Internet are investigated through a qualitative methodology based on participant observation and active interviews with activists from different social movements. Through the analysis of the stories of cyberactivists collected between 2007 and 2020, an evolution of myths and imaginaries is foregrounded, moving from a utopian and idealized cyber-libertarian rhetoric towards a growing demystification of the Internet as a dystopian space

Cooperative affordances: how instant messaging apps afford learning, resistance and solidarity among food delivery workers

Questo articolo si propone di comprendere le pratiche e i significati associati alla creazione e all'uso di gruppi di chat privati su servizi di messaggistica istantanea come WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger e WeChat, accessibili solo ai corrieri dei servizi di consegna di cibo online. l'articolo si basa su un anno di osservazione partecipante in cinque Paesi (Italia, Spagna, Messico, Cina e India), su interviste semi-strutturate a 68 corrieri di consegna di cibo e su un anno di etnografia digitale (Pink et al., 2015) all'interno di decine di gruppi di chat privati online di addetti alle consegne di cibo. Il nostro lavoro sul campo mostra che i gruppi di chat privati sono estremamente rilevanti nel lavoro quotidiano dei fattorini e vengono utilizzati per ripristinare forme di mutualismo non previste dalle app di food delivery. Seguendo Costa (2018) e il suo concetto di affordances-in-practice, descriviamo come la pratica dei gruppi di chat privati online creati dai lavoratori delle piattaforme permetta: (1) l'emergere di comunità di pratica; (2) l'emergere di forme di resistenza; (3) l'emergere di di forme di mutualismo e solidarietà. Sosteniamo che questi lavoratori "mettono in atto" le possibilità delle app di messaggistica istantanea per integrare, dal basso, le affordances delle app di consegna del cibo che sono state negate o ignorate dalle aziende di consegna del cibo. Sosteniamo che queste affordances costituiscano delle "affordance cooperative". Questo concetto coglie la natura cooperativa della comunicazione peer-to-peer che avviene all'interno dei gruppi informali di chat online creati dagli stessi lavoratori. Infine, questo articolo contribuisce alla teoria delle affordance evidenziando come esse non siano proprietà immanenti degli artefatti, o "invarianti", come sostenuto da Gibson (1979), ma possano essere "messe in atto" da utenti specifici, come i fattorini, all'interno di specifici contesti sociali e culturali.This paper aims to understand the practices and meanings associated with the creation and use of private chat groups on instant messaging services such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger and WeChat that are accessible only to platform workers of online food delivery services. We draw on participant observation in five countries (Italy, Spain, Mexico, China, and India), in-depth interviews with 68 food delivery couriers and digital ethnography (Pink et al., 2015) within dozens of online private chat groups of food delivery workers. Our fieldwork shows that private chat groups are extremely relevant in the daily work of delivery workers and are appropriated to restore forms of mutualism not afforded by the food delivery apps. Following Costa (2018) and her concept of affordances-in-practice, we describe how the practice of online private chat groups created by platform workers affords: (1) the emergence of communities of practice; (2) resistance and contempt; (3) mutualism and solidarity. We argue that these workers ‘enact’ the affordances of instant messaging apps, to supplement – from below – the affordances of food delivery apps that were denied or ignored by food delivery companies. We argue that these affordances constitute co- operative affordances. This concept captures the cooperative nature of peer-to-peer communication that occurs within the informal online chat groups created by the workers themselves. Finally, this article contributes to affordance theory by highlighting how affordances are not immanent properties of artifacts, or ‘invariants’, as argued by Gibson (1979), but can be ‘enacted’ by specific users, like food delivery workers, within specific social and cultural contexts