Laying Claim to Social Media by Activists: A Cyber-Material Détournement

Abstract

This article examines current appropriations of social media by activists of the radical left in Greece and Sweden. Previous research has shown that the discourse concerning social media’s empowering potential is embedded in commercial values that contradict the value systems of many activists who engage in struggles against the current economic system. We employ the notion of détournement, which describes how social movements turn something aside from its normal course or purpose. Based on interviews and online ethnographic observations, we seek to understand how and with what consequences social media facilitate and limit collective action. The article enhances our understanding of activists’ social media use by turning our attention to the sociotechnical impact of social media on collective action initiated by leftist groups as well as the relationship between ideological loyalties and the political economy of corporate social media.

Social Media and New Protest Movements

“…Without a thorough examination of creative activist social media practices it is hard to understand the vitality and impact of platform-mediated protest. And vice versa: without a critical examination of the techno-commercial strategies of platforms we cannot fully understand why protest messages and activity can spread very quickly, but also suddenly disappear from the public limelight (for examples of research that tries to do both, see Galis & Neumayer, 2016;Milan, 2015b;Poell, 2014;Shea et al, 2015).…”

From digital activism to algorithmic resistance

“…The Indignados' capacity to create trending topics and master this new kind of viral politics is unmatched within contemporary movements. It is based on the fundamental role that hackers and techies played within the movement, acting as a techvanguard that applied their tech expertise not only for the creation of radical alternative media, but above all for the appropriation and cyber-material detournement (Galis & Neumayer 2016) of corporate social media.…”

‘Stop Fake Hate Profiles on Facebook’: Challenges for crowdsourced activism on social media

“…In order to successfully achieve political goals, activists in social media environments must thus adapt their political strategies to corporate social media logics such as connectivity, popularity, and datafication (van Dijck and Poell, 2013). Through this adaptation, activists risk being co-opted by the social media logics that they attempt to use against the system (Galis and Neumayer, 2016). In other words, instead of empowering activists, "power has partly shifted to the technological mechanisms and algorithmic selections operated by large social media corporations" (Poell and van Dijck, 2015, p. 534).…”