Echo Chambers of Digital Harm: Insights Into Layered Affordances From India and South Korea

This article introduces the concept of layered affordances to affordance theory, providing a framework for analyzing how digital platform affordances intersect and reinforce each other in facilitating technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV). Focusing on the #MeTooIndia movement and the Nth Room case in South Korea, we explore how multiplatform affordances, such as visibility, anonymity, and shareability, combine to create digital environments that enable the spread, reinforcement, and normalization of misogynistic narratives. In both cases, perpetrators strategically exploited layered affordances across platforms like X, Instagram, and Telegram to evade moderation, amplify harmful behaviors, and establish echo chambers of digital harm. This article argues that layered affordances reveal complex cross-platform dynamics that are crucial for understanding TFGBV and the ways in which digital harms are structured and sustained. Our findings highlight the need for nuanced, cross-platform governance policies that address the compounded nature of digital violence, particularly in non-Western contexts where marginalized communities are often most affected. By conceptualizing layered affordances, this study provides a crucial framework for analyzing the affordances that enable digital harms and for developing targeted interventions, thereby paving the way for more effective digital policy and platform design strategies.