And the next speaker in this session at the 2026 Association of Internet Researchers conference in Mexico City is Sigrid Kannengießer, whose interest is in the media practices of Fediverse community activists as they contradict platform capitalism. Such platform capitalism is characterised by hegemonic organisation within current capitalist practices, and increasingly closely connected to technofascism.
Drawing on practice theory, the patterns of contradicting platform capitalism can be examined systematically; these include both acting with media (using media technologies as mediators) and acting on media (putting the focus of action on media and digital technologies, e.g. through infrastructuring). A focus on discursive practices of contradicting is especially valuable here.
Such practices of contradicting may include navigating (e.g. by tricking online platforms), hijacking (e.g. by purchasing and then reshaping such platforms), or rebuilding digital infrastructures (e.g. through building the Fediverse); the focus here is on the latter, of course.
Acting out such contradicting with media can then mean operating within journalistic news media and tech journalism outlets, and within online networks such as the Fediverse; acting on media can mean developing the alternative technical and social infrastructures that sustain the Fediverse.
Fediverse research has prominently explored Fediverse governance and moderation practices, as well as the adoption of such infrastructures by institutional, educational, and activist actors. This is also a reaction to the support of US-based Big Tech for far-right actors, in Germany and many other nations. But there are also ambivalences within the Fediverse itself, highlighted especially when disagreements (over moderation decisions, or other aspects) emerge.
The Fediverse, then, also has democratic implications, especially as it materially shapes practices of contradicting platform capitalism; it enables the reclamation of alternative and counterpublic activity from the far right, which also likes to present itself (incorrectly) as a counterpublic against the hegemonic mainstream. But this is complicated by the fact that Fediverse communities are also actively resisting research on their communities.
