Vernacular Visibility and Algorithmic Resistance in the Public Expression of Latin American Feminism

© The Author(s) 2021.This article seeks to understand how Latin American feminist public expression has gained algorithm-mediated visibility on social media. To this end, a cross-platform analysis was conducted for two issues: the legalisation of abortion in Argentina and the struggle to eliminate violence against women. The data were collected on four platforms: Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube through the representative hashtags, `#abortolegal2020¿, `#25N¿, and `#niunamenos¿. Digital critical methods were employed to gather data and approach high-visibility users, visual messages, and hashtagging practices. The findings reveal two configurations of algorithmic mediated visibility, formed by assemblages of actors, formats, and knowledge: platform vernaculars and algorithmic resistance. Both result in a mutual shaping between platforms, seeking to impose a quantitative logic of visibility, and feminist actors, using the tactics of algorithmic resistance to give visibility to the content, aesthetics, and resignified messages about their struggles.

Vernacular Visibility and Algorithmic Resistance in the Public Expression of Latin American Feminism Academic Article in Scopus