Introduction to algorithmic antagonisms: Resistance, reconfiguration, and renaissance for computational life

Abstract

The chant of hundreds of UK school students echoed across the streets in front of the UK's Department of Education. Students, livid, were protesting their chances of university entrance being snuffed out or otherwise manipulated by 'the algorithm'. The exasperation focussed on the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation's automated process for estimating marks for final exams that were cancelled due to COVID-19: 'the algorithm' deployed had taken predictable biases (Noble, 2018) and delivered inflationary marks to private school students, while deflating the marks (and dreams) of students at government schools and of lower socio-economic status. This example from 2020 is just one that shows how problematics of algorithmic governance pervade society. Yet the focus here on algorithmic antagonisms is not meant to comment on being oppressed by algorithms, or resisting their power through protest, or even being resigned to their effects.Instead it asks what happens when energy is put into fucking with algorithms to produce political movement within societies that are increasingly governed by them? Specifically, this introduction and the papers that follow in the special issue turn the critical study of data to consider algorithms'

How to train your algorithm: The struggle for public control over private audience commodities on Tiktok

“…However, people also intentionally put labor into “fucking with” algorithms to actively challenge and undermine existing power structures. Specifically, Heemsbergen et al (2022) outline “algorithmic antagonisms,” which are media practices where people “tactically subvert, manipulate, or obviate extant power relations” (p. 4). Thus, a fruitful line of inquiry could explore how people actively attempt to disrupt algorithmically created audience commodities.…”

“…Herein, an analysis of how individuals negotiate media structures is useful, as Marxian theories are often critiqued for leaving little room for individual agency and resistance. Scholars have consistently demonstrated how people navigate exploitative social media systems to challenge systems of domination, especially through algorithmic practices (Heemsbergen et al, 2022).…”

Social media and platform work: Stories, practices, and workers’ organisation

“…According to O’Meara (2022), this means a struggle over measures from mutual aid support, organising and gamification from below. These are forms of agency, voice and collective organisation of creators that can be understood as algorithmic antagonisms (Heemsberg et al, 2022) and forms of everyday resistance in relation to platforms (Siles et al, 2022).…”

Imágenes falsas, efectos reales. Deepfakes como manifestaciones de la violencia política de género

“…La emergencia de deepfakes, por tanto, no debilita las bases de hechos y verdades compartidos, sino que recuerda que las nociones de democracia nunca han sido fijas (Heemsbergen et al, 2022). En este contexto, como afirman Jacobsen y Simpson (2023), los deepfakes no son un fenómeno desestabilizador, sino un reflejo de la naturaleza siempre contestada de la política.…”