Deplatforming: Following extreme Internet celebrities to Telegram and alternative social media

TLDR

Extreme anti‑establishment actors are increasingly labeled as dangerous by mainstream platforms, prompting deplatforming that sparks debate over free speech and effectiveness. The study tracks selected extreme Internet celebrities onto Telegram and other alternative platforms to empirically examine whether deplatforming is effective and how the deplatformed use these channels. The authors followed the online activity of these figures on Telegram and a broader alternative social media ecosystem.

Abstract

Extreme, anti-establishment actors are being characterized increasingly as ‘dangerous individuals’ by the social media platforms that once aided in making them into ‘Internet celebrities’. These individuals (and sometimes groups) are being ‘deplatformed’ by the leading social media companies such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube for such offences as ‘organised hate’. Deplatforming has prompted debate about ‘liberal big tech’ silencing free speech and taking on the role of editors, but also about the questions of whether it is effective and for whom. The research reported here follows certain of these Internet celebrities to Telegram as well as to a larger alternative social media ecology. It enquires empirically into some of the arguments made concerning whether deplatforming ‘works’ and how the deplatformed use Telegram. It discusses the effects of deplatforming for extreme Internet celebrities, alternative and mainstream social media platforms and the Internet at large. It also touches upon how social media companies’ deplatforming is affecting critical social media research, both into the substance of extreme speech as well as its audiences on mainstream as well as alternative platforms.