The DOI matches its Crossref record, with a small difference in title or year; 30 of the 31 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
#Gamergate and The Fappening: How Reddit’s algorithm, governance, and culture support toxic technocultures
Abstract
This article considers how the social-news and community site Reddit.com has become a hub for anti-feminist activism. Examining two recent cases of what are defined as “toxic technocultures” (#Gamergate and The Fappening), this work describes how Reddit’s design, algorithm, and platform politics implicitly support these kinds of cultures. In particular, this piece focuses on the ways in which Reddit’s karma point system, aggregation of material across subreddits, ease of subreddit and user account creation, governance structure, and policies around offensive content serve to provide fertile ground for anti-feminist and misogynistic activism. The ways in which these events and communities reflect certain problematic aspects of geek masculinity are also considered. This research is informed by the results of a long-term participant-observation and ethnographic study into Reddit’s culture and community and is grounded in actor-network theory.
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“For the past two decades, social media has largely followed a centralized paradigm, where power over systems is concentrated among a few actors [30,51,76].”
From Seeing the Politics of Decentralized Social Media Protocols (2026) · cites this paper as [76]
In the citing paper
“Sometimes, however, the practices take more abusive forms, with imagery being spread (mostly by the boys and young men) without consent to peers and further on to more or less publicly accessible online platforms, fora, and sites - some inspired by abusive and toxic adult communities (Ging, 2017; Jane, 2014; Massanari, 2017).”
From Sexualized, platformed female bodies in male online practices: Negotiating boundaries of masculinity, gendered positioning and intimacy (2022) · cites this paper as Massanari, 2017
In the citing paper
“As highlighted by Ging et al. (2020) and Massanari (2017), this process is accelerated by the technological affordances of new media, allowing for the rapid amplification and dissemination of certain words and concepts through echo-chambers.”
From Mainstreaming the Blackpill: Understanding the Incel Community on TikTok (2023) · cites this paper as Massanari (2017)
In the citing paper
“Whilst incels' beliefs mirror rape myths, their presence and ideological dissemination on mainstream media generates further harms by confirming and legitimising rape culture, conducive of what Massanari (2017) terms as 'toxic technocultures'.”
From Mainstreaming the Blackpill: Understanding the Incel Community on TikTok (2023) · cites this paper as Massanari, 2017
In the citing paper
“Despite the bigotry, harassment, and backlash trans contributors have faced in online and offline spaces [53, 70, 90], their participation has been formative”
From Paradoxes of Openness: Trans Experiences in Open Source Software (2024) · cites this paper as [70]
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“In this article, I examine how the platform and algorithmic politics (Bucher, 2012; Gillespie, 2010; Van Dijck, 2013) of Reddit.com provides fertile ground for these kinds of toxic spaces to emerge.”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Massanari, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Illinois Chicago (US)
- Corresponding author
- Massanari, Adrienne
- ORCID
- Massanari, Adrienne
- Venue
- New Media & Society
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2016-07-09
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 329-346
- ISSN
- 1461-4448 (ISSN-L)
- 1461-7315
- OpenAlex
- W2301953046
- Cited by
- 1,264
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 96 · 2025: 122 · 2024: 138 · 2023: 157 · 2022: 167 · 2021: 149 · 2020: 181 · 2019: 107 · 2018: 87 · 2017: 48 · 2016: 12
- FWCI
- 114.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- New Media & Society (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Feminism, and Media
- Social Sciences › Communication › Social Media and Politics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Games and Media
- Keywords
- Gamergate, Reddit, platform governance, algorithmic curation, subreddits, misogyny, platform politics, online communities
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