This article proposes the concept ‘platformed racism’ as a way to interrogate the digital mediation of racism within and across social media platforms. Platformed racism has dual meanings: first, it evokes platforms as amplifiers and manufacturers of racist discourse; and second, it describes the modes of platform governance that reproduce (but that can also address) social inequalities. Both the dynamics of race and of platforms are highly situated. Race relations are unique to each national context and each social media platform has its own specificities. Accordingly, this study explores and elaborates the concept of platformed racism through one particular national race-related controversy—the booing of the Indigenous Australian Football League (AFL) star Adam Goodes; through the lens of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube respectively.

1. Pla$ormed
Racism
The
media1on
and
circula1on
of
an
Australian
race-­‐based
controversy
on
Twi<er,
Facebook
and
YouTube
Ariadna
Matamoros
Fernandez
PhD
Candidate––@andairamf
Digital
Media
Research
Centre
(DMRC)
Queensland
University
of
Technology

2. Platformed racism:
o Is informed by the socio-cultural context in which social media platforms are created and
developed as technologies, and has a double meaning;
o It evokes platforms as amplifiers and manufacturers of racist discourse;
o It describes the modes of platform governance that reproduce (but can also address) social
inequalities

3. Libertarianism, romantic capitalism and privilege
“thinking about making babies (…) is fun. (…) to change their diapers (or buy them or wash them or
dispose of them or manufacture them or pay for those diapers), is not”
(Borsook, 1997, p. 6)

4. Platforms as amplifiers and manufacturers of racist discourse

5. Platform governance & inequality
Unclear rules
“We encourage free speech and
try to defend your right to express
unpopular points of view, but we
don't permit hate speech “
YouTube
“We allow humor, satire, or
social commentary related to
these topics [e.g. race, gender],
and we believe that when people
use their authentic identity, they
are more responsible when they
share this kind of commentary”
Facebook
Chain of liability
Arbitrary enforcement of rules
A picture of two elder
Indigenous women showing
their breasts in a traditional
dance is labeled pornographic
by Facebook and taken down
Images of the AFL star Adam
Goodes comparing him with
Harambe do not violate
Facebook’s policies according
to the platform

6. Case study: The booing of Adam Goodes
Politics of refusal (Simpson, 2014)

7. Old and new forms of humour
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
“Here Goodes. Your retirement
song”

8. The importance of metrics and un-curated comment space
Twitter Facebook
YouTube
“If a black kid booed a white player
would he be called a racist, not
likely. You would think this is the
first player to be booed and how
does a boo become a racist
remark, absolutely ridiculous.
Victoria the Nanny State, we are
pathetic. Boo boo boo what a
stinking sook”

9. Green: AFL related pages
Blue: AFL Footy Show
Purple: Today TV show
Pink: 7News Melbourne
Grey: Herald Sun
Orange: Richmond
Turquoise: ABC
Light pink: The Project
Sam Newman on Goodes
acting like a ‘jerk’ (822
comments)
Eddie McGuire King Kong
(384 comments)
Alan Jones: Goodes is 'always
a victim’ (47 comments)
Algorithmic shape of sociability
Facebook
YouTube

10. Notice & take down processes
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube

11. Platformed racism emerges from the Adam Goodes case study as the entanglement
between the governance and ideology of platforms, their technological affordances
and the user practices that they mediate;
o Platformed racism operates differently on each platform
o E.g. Twitter ‘sensitive media’ filter vs YouTube thumbs down & Facebook and YouTube recommendation algorithms
o E.g. Different actors involved in these conversation (e.g. Mainstream media role on YouTube)
o Platforms as amplifiers and manufacturers of racist discourse
o Users appropriate platforms’ affordances––policy and filters––to disguise racist humour; and
o Social media platforms’ features and algorithms facilitate the circulation of overt and covert hate speech;
o Modes of platform governance that reproduce social inequalities
o Un-curated comment space– hate speech remains online despite platforms’ policies;
o Chain of liability; and
o Lack of transparency – e.g. Platforms’ lack of information in their notice and take down processes obscures the scope and type of
racist abuse
Conclusions

12. Thank
you!
ariadna.matamorosfernandez@qut.edu.au
@andairamf

13. References
- Borsook, P. (1997, December 3). The Diaper Fallacy Strikes Again. Retrieved 1 September 2016, from
http://www.paulinaborsook.com/Doco/diaper_fallacy.pdf
- Burgess, J., & Matamoros-Fernandez. (2016). Mapping sociocultural controversies across digital media platforms: One week of
#gamergate on Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr. Communication, Research & Practice.
- Gillespie, T. (2015). Platforms intervene. Social Media+ Society, 1(1), 2056305115580479.
- Ford, T. E., & Ferguson, M. A. (2004). Social Consequences of Disparagement Humor: A Prejudiced Norm Theory. Personality and Social
Psychology Review, 8(1), 79–94.
- Simpson, A. (2014). Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States. Durham: Duke University Press. Retrieved
from
- Streeter, T. (2011). The Net Effect: Romanticism, Capitalism, and the Internet. New York and London: New York University Press. Suzor,
N. (2010). The role of the rule of law in virtual communities. Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 25(4), 1818–1886.
• Pictures
– https://thoughthub.com.au/2015/07/28/the-real-reason-adam-goodes-is-booed/
– http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3222400/Steve-Jobs-didn-t-know-technology-just-wanted-important-Steve-Wozniak-
claims-business-partner-played-no-role-design-early-Apple-devices.html
– http://blog.emojipedia.org/new-to-emojipedia-samsung-facebook-emoji-one/
• Tools
– Rieder, B. (2015). YouTube Data Tools. Computer Software. Vers. 1.0. N. p. https://tools.digitalmethods.net/netvizz/youtube/
– Rieder, B. (2013). Studying Facebook via data extraction: the Netvizz application. In Proceedings of the 5th Annual ACM Web
Science Conference (pp. 346–355). ACM. Retrieved from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2464475