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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
“This Forum Is Not A Democracy”: The Role Of Norms And Moderation In Cultivating (Anti)Democratic Incel Identities, Jennifer Forestal
“This Forum Is Not A Democracy”: The Role Of Norms And Moderation In Cultivating (Anti)Democratic Incel Identities, Jennifer Forestal
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
Incels (short for “involuntarily celibate”) have recently gained notoriety for their aggressive, often violent, misogyny, yet incels were not always an antidemocratic social group. They thus pose a challenge for thinking about democracy and identity in (anonymous) digital environments: how can we create spaces for marginalized social groups while ensuring the resulting identities remain democratic? While many scholars point to technological affordances or corporate content moderation policies as providing some solutions, in this article I propose a more democratic approach. Drawing from incel wikis and archived forum posts from two early incel communities—IncelSupport and LoveShy—I argue that a community's social …
The Masked Demos: Associational Anonymity And Democratic Practice, Jennifer Forestal, Menaka Philips
The Masked Demos: Associational Anonymity And Democratic Practice, Jennifer Forestal, Menaka Philips
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
The increased use of anonymous digital platforms raises substantive concerns about accountability in digital spaces. However, contemporary evaluations of anonymity focus too narrowly on its protective function: its ability to protect a diversity of speakers and ideas. Drawing on two examples of anonymous political engagements – Publius’s writing of the Federalist Papers and college students’ use of the social media platform Yik Yak – we develop an account of anonymity’s associational function: the processes by which people generate and negotiate collective identities, discussions, and actions in wider publics. As we argue, anonymity’s associational function can (1) generate conditions under which …