“PS. If I go missing... i have been banned again” - A netnographic study of users’ opposition to algorithmic censorship of the female body on Instagram

Abstract: As algorithmically-driven content moderation has become a common feature of social media platforms to suppress communications deemed undesirable, scholars have started to examine users’ relations to algorithmic systems and problems of machine bias and governmentality. While most researchers have focused on the negative aspects of censorship, few have explored the possibilities of users to oppose algorithmic control. Through a netnographic approach and content analysis of social media posts, the purpose of this thesis was to address the possibility of Instagram users to oppose algorithmic censorship of the female body. The analysis draws on Michel de Certeau’s (1984) concepts of strategies as the ways in which platforms censor their users, and tactics as users’ acts of technology resistance for trying to maintain visibility on the platform. The thesis found that users' opposition largely revolved around expectation violation, with “folk theories” and “folk beliefs” acting as frames for formulating various forms of “tactics of opposition”. In doing so, this thesis raises questions about the opportunity for productive agency for users and our increasingly complex relationship with automated technologies in everyday life.