Social Media and Society: Platforms, Publics, and Anti-Publics

The Special Issue on Platforms, publics, and anti-publics focused on the complex intersection of platforms, including issues around their ownership, datafication, business models, and algorithms; and the emergence of publics and anti-publics online, which has been increasingly impacted by platforms infrastructures and designs. This Special Issue underscores the need to understand how online publics are influenced by sociotechnical affordances and shaped by the political and ideological influence of platforms’ governances. The articles featured in this issue explore the role of digital platforms in relation to sociability and public discourse; and dive into the discussion of publics, marked by the emergence of online communities and sociability online, and anti-publics on social media, poisoned by political propaganda and online abuse. The articles included in the issue are extended versions of the research presented at the 2024 International Conference on Social Media and Society (#SMSociety).