PLATFORM/DISNOVATION.ORG Online Culture War (2019)
PLATFORM/DISNOVATION.ORG Online Culture War (2019)
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The digital public sphere is a quagmire. The culture wars raging on online platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and 4chan are unstoppable. A character such as Pepe the Frog, who started out as a left-wing pet frog, was rapidly appropriated as a symbol of right-wing extremist thought. Who influences the dissemination and meaning of these memes? Social media are not innocent platforms for information exchange; their algorithms and bots contribute to political and psychological manipulation. DISNOVATION.ORG is an attempt to map how these online platforms influence political thoughts and statements by zooming in on the technological processes behind these systems. On the map the Internet is ordered along the axes of libertarian/authoritarian and economic left/right, resulting in a mapping of and compass for the social media ecosystem. The cartography makes clear that divisions and political boundaries are blurring. ‘Power’ is no longer in the hands of nation-states, but of tech giants with an economic motive. Is Online Culture Wars a cartography of the new political powers that be – or does DISNOVATION.ORG show that every simplification contributes to the polarizing trend against which it seems to be agitating?
The digital public sphere is a quagmire. The culture wars raging on online platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and 4chan are unstoppable. A character such as Pepe the Frog, who started out as a left-wing pet frog, was rapidly appropriated as a symbol of right-wing extremist thought. Who influences the dissemination and meaning of these memes? Social media are not innocent platforms for information exchange; their algorithms and bots contribute to political and psychological manipulation. DISNOVATION.ORG is an attempt to map how these online platforms influence political thoughts and statements by zooming in on the technological processes behind these systems. On the map the Internet is ordered along the axes of libertarian/authoritarian and economic left/right, resulting in a mapping of and compass for the social media ecosystem. The cartography makes clear that divisions and political boundaries are blurring. ‘Power’ is no longer in the hands of nation-states, but of tech giants with an economic motive. Is Online Culture Wars a cartography of the new political powers that be – or does DISNOVATION.ORG show that every simplification contributes to the polarizing trend against which it seems to be agitating?
