Queering algorithms

LGBTQ+ content creators’ non-conforming and non-confronting workarounds to digital normativity in China

Bibliographic Data

ID7151024
AuthorsJiannan Shi (0009-0008-9831-8856, University of Cambridge, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume31
Issue3
Pages728-751
Publication date2025-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueConvergence The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1354-8565 • E-ISSN: 1748-7382
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/13548565241299281
OpenAlexW4404244672
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited73

Popular social media platforms in China, such as Bilibili, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu (REDnote), use machine learning algorithms to curate personalized feeds and enforce content moderation. But the opacity of such algorithms introduces socially consequential and often problematic mechanisms of classification. Given the playful resistance of queer individuals against a normative social environment, the interaction between algorithms and content creators warrants close examination. This study investigates how LGBTQ+ content creators navigate these algorithm-driven platforms, focusing on their negotiation of digital normativity to share non-heterosexual content and foster queer sociality in China. Avoiding the oversimplification of viewing algorithms and those implementing them as monolithic entities, I explore how content creators creatively manage to produce and distribute their work within the constraints of these platforms, and even by playing with these constraints. I collected data from an ethnography on algorithms, interviews, and an open-source investigation into recommendation algorithms, through a scavenge approach. I argue that LGBTQ+ content creators engage with algorithms in ways that are simultaneously non-conforming and non-confrontational. They imagine algorithmic effects, appropriate outcomes, and play with the opacity of machine learning to navigate three aspects of digital normativity in China: heteronormativity, Internet civilization, and commercialization. Empirically, I identified three strategies used to create and expand queer sociality within these constraints: camouflaging, filtering, and verticalizing. Theoretically, I introduce ‘workarounds’ as a framework that transcends the binary perspectives of conformity and resistance in discussions of authoritarian governance, algorithmic control, and user-platform interaction

Algorithm · China · Political science · Programming language · Workaround · Asian Culture and Media Studies · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Computer Science · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI · Law · Mathematics

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