Dilara Asardag- Feminist performative digital assemblies as a way of becoming: notions of empowerment and subordination through hashtag activism and online feminist publics in Turkey
In this paper, my aim is to comprehend to what extent queer/feminist online activism and cultures of visibility against gender-based violence and their various entangled performative articulations are expanding the space of politics in Turkey and to what extent these are facing hindrances such as surveillance, censorship, algorithmic discrimination, disinformation, misogynist, homophobic and transphobic backlash.In the context of Turkey, patriarchal violence does not only affect women as perceived to be an insular group but also members of the LGBTIQ+ in an equal manner, which makes the necessity for queer intersectional feminist lens urgent.
Tendai Chari-Communication Rights and politics of digital infrastructures in the Global South: The case of #DataMustFall campaign in South Africa
The Internet has become an indispensable digital infrastructure for functioning of society. Access to the Internet holds the promise for citizen participation in democratic processes. However, in developing countries, Internet access remains a pipe dream for the majority who cannot afford the costs of mobile data and gadgets. In South Africa, high costs of mobile data triggered citizen action and agitation in 2016 in a battle pitting mobile network companies and citizens. Current discourses on digital rights tend to be elitist as they exclude marginalised groups who face ‘specific communication deficits (Thomas, 2005:7) from defining and setting priorities with regards to the digital communication rights debate. Consequently, little is known about how communication rights impinge on the politics of digital infrastructures in the global South. Informed by social movement theories, and deploying a case study research design, this paper examines struggles over high price of mobile data using the #DataMustFall Campaign in South Africa to shed light on the entanglement between communication rights and politics of digital infrastructures. Why the #DataMustFall campaign was born, its strategies and achievements are questions at the core of this investigation. Empirical data were gleaned through document analysis and newspaper articles. The paper contributes new knowledge on how the struggle for access to digital infrastructures reflects the contending rights of the citizen, the state and corporate players. The paper reflects on the lessons which can be drawn from this movement by other countries in the Southern African context.
Jochem Kootstra- Fighting maps with maps
My paper explores the potency of digital maps as cultural representations and storytelling mediums in the context of digital activism. Maps can create their own “realities” and reproduce social conventions and hierarchies, making them subjective rather than neutral. Throughout history, maps have often perpetuated power relations. Today, Google Maps dominates as the digital platform that shapes our perception of the world, but this does not always align with local knowledge or realities.
As an anthropologist, I delve into the social and cultural impacts of map (mis)representation in politically conflicted areas such as Palestine and Hong Kong. I also investigate the potential of counter-mapping as a form of digital activism and storytelling; visually depicting suppressed stories, everyday practices, and collective social and cultural identities and memories. The paper highlights how the interplay between humans and new spatial digital technologies can create a sense of belonging and (more) meaning in local areas. However, it also acknowledges the risks counter-mapping poses to marginalized groups, specifically within the framework of the paradox of exposure.
In summary, this paper investigates how digital maps can function as powerful cultural representations and storytelling mediums in the context of digital activism. It explores the implications of map (mis)representation for local communities in politically conflicted areas, while also examining how counter-mapping can be leveraged as a tool for digital activism and storytelling. Ultimately, this paper contributes to a nuanced understanding of the dynamics between humans, digital technologies, and the representation of local knowledge and realities.
Heidi Kosonen-Counterspeech as Talking back digitally in Finnish online communities
With profit-driven social media platforms, encouraging the spread of misinformation, and hate speech through their algorithmic preferences, affordances, and affective practices, hope is not often the dominant emotion that comes to mind. Yet over the past decade, counterspeech, usually defined as a range of responses to hateful or dangerous messages online, has become a central concept in platforms,’ governments’, NGOs’, and civic society’s actions. It has also proliferated within scholarship, seeking to find its most effective forms and ways (e.g Benesch et al. 2016).
In our Kone Foundation-funded project “Activism as a method for arts and science: research into effective counterspeech in Finnish online communities” (2021–2023), we have studied counterspeech practices in synergy between artistic research and cultural and digital studies approaches. Covering the Finnish digital sphere, our case studies have focused on diverse civil society and activist practices seeking to counter hate and correct misinformation. We have directed our attention both to established or long-standing cases, such as the body positivity activism prevailing in Instagram, and to emergent issues, the examples of which
are offered by viral “I Love You Stepan” -campaign against the war on Ukraine, or the organization of the open-source social media platform Mastodon after Musk’s purchase of Twitter Fall of 2022.
In our paper at the 5th International Geomedia Conference, we discuss the various forms counterspeech can take and how it is affected by individual actions, cultural changes, and structural qualities. We focus on the hopeful possibilities these contain and show them through the different case studies. Through bell hooks concept of ‘talking back’ (1989) we especially highlight counterspeech actions arising from feminist practices, disenfranchised communities, and anti-capitalist corners of the digital sphere.