New Media & Society· 2015Q1
#Gamergate and The Fappening: How Reddit’s algorithm, governance, and culture support toxic technocultures
- 1,248citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2015year
Short summary
Reddit's platform design, including its karma system, content aggregation, ease of account creation, and policies on offensive content, implicitly supports anti-feminist and misogynistic activism, as seen in #Gamergate and The Fappening.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Reddit's platform design implicitly supports anti-feminist activism.
- #Gamergate and The Fappening are identified as "toxic technocultures" thriving on Reddit.
- Key platform features enabling this include the karma system, content aggregation, and lax policies on offensive content.
- The research is grounded in ethnographic study and actor-network theory.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
This article considers how the social-news and community site Reddit.com has become a hub for anti-feminist activism. Examining two recent cases of what are defined as “toxic technocultures” (#Gamergate and The Fappening), this work describes how Reddit’s design, algorithm, and platform politics implicitly support these kinds of cultures. In particular, this piece focuses on the ways in which Reddit’s karma point system, aggregation of material across subreddits, ease of subreddit and user account creation, governance structure, and policies around offensive content serve to provide fertile ground for anti-feminist and misogynistic activism. The ways in which these events and communities reflect certain problematic aspects of geek masculinity are also considered. This research is informed by the results of a long-term participant-observation and ethnographic study into Reddit’s culture and community and is grounded in actor-network theory.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. New Media & Society, 2015 · DOI ↗
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Field: Gender Studies
Gender StudiesSocial Sciences