The majority of scholarship on platform governance focuses on for-profit, corporate social media with highly centralized network structures. Instead, we show how non-centralized platform governance functions in the Mastodon social network. Through an analysis of survey data, Github and Discourse developer discussions, Mastodon Codes of Conduct,…[Read more]

Online interactions are often understood through the corporate social media (CSM) model where social interactions are determined through layers of abstraction and centralization that eliminate users from decision-making processes. This study demonstrates how alternative social media (ASM)—namely Mastodon—restructure the relationship between the…[Read more]

Platforms and infrastructures have quickly become seminal concepts to understand large-scale computational systems. The difference between a platform and an infrastructure is subject to debate. In this paper, we use the concept of the darknet to describe how infrastructure tends toward being public with other things where platforms tend to private…[Read more]

Discusses the use of emotions in marketing and advertising, especially contemporary digital marketing, and how emotional manipulation will lead to a world full of love.

Explores the Marianas Web meme as a cultural myth. Special appearance by Rudy Giuliani.

This chapter provides a field guide for other digital humanists who want to study the Dark Web. In order to focus the chapter, I emphasize my belief that, in order to study the cultures of Dark Web sites and users, the digital humanist must engage with these systems’ technical infrastructures. I will provide specific reasons why I believe that…[Read more]