Refusing Platform Promises

A Gendered Rewriting of Digital Imaginaries

Authors

  • Nishant Shah The Chinese University of Hong Kong

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17169/ogj.2023.214

Keywords:

Digital Cultures, Digital Platforms, Social Media, Violence against Women

Abstract

Platforms have recently come under scrutiny, both in policy and in scholarship. Yet, there is little attention paid to the notion and materiality of gendered practices. Although gender is present on these platforms, it is not necessarily endemic or critical to the analysis of these platformed practices.

Platform Promises is a way by which we look at platformisation of gender, focusing on how gender politics are coded into the logic and infrastructure of these platforms. I propose that we stop thinking about platforms as technological engineering artefacts upon which conditions of gender are operationalised. This framing makes us believe that gendered and sexual violence online are a state of exception which can be fixed through better regulation and governance.

I propose that we use gender as both a discursive and an analytic category by which to rewrite the discourse on platforms, to see the platform promises that are taken for granted and are not questioned in the dominant narratives.

Author Biography

Nishant Shah, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Nishant Shah is a feminist, humanist, technologist. He is Associate Professor of Global Media and Director of The Digital Narratives Studio at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Faculty Associate (2023–24) at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University, and knowledge partner to the Digital Asia Hub and Point of View.

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Beschriftung: Internationale Konferenz: Digital Gender. Ethik, Macht und (Geschlechter-)Wissen in Systemen künstlicher Intelligenz mit Logos von TU Dresden, GenderConceptGroup und OGJ auf Streifen in dunkelblau, lila und hellorange

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Published

2023-10-27

How to Cite

Shah, N. (2023). Refusing Platform Promises: A Gendered Rewriting of Digital Imaginaries. Open Gender Journal, 7. https://doi.org/10.17169/ogj.2023.214

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