@BlockAllTwerps

Twitter is awash with rubbish. Aside from annoying or uninteresting content, there is the intentionally bad: tweets that are posted when one community is thrown together with another community with conflicting goals. For example, fascists take exception to feminists and a pile-on ensues. This dynamic is exacerbated by the fact that Twitter is a largely unmoderated platform.

Although blocking tools can prevent targets from seeing harassment, abusive tweets function as a form of performativity which attackers use to impress each other and to shore up their group identity. This rubbish is therefore meaningful within a social milieu.

Meanwhile, those under attack have taken to using block lists as a form of shared data within communities, as users turn to collaborative blocking as a means to respond to lack of moderation.

I explore this creation of blocking tools as a form of gendered labour, given that women are disproportionally likely to suffer online abuse.

However, these shared tools have a darker side: in creating big-data style blocking lists, some community members can find themselves shut out if they are caught up in the filters.

Date
27.05.
Start
12
00
End
12
40
Format
Lecture
Contributor(s)