From institutions to influencers: Negotiating holocaust memory in the algorithmic age

Holocaust remembrance is increasingly shaped by convergent media ecologies of digital platforms. Drawing on a mixed-method content analysis of 43 profiles (35 influencers and 8 institutions) across Instagram, Facebook, and X on International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2024, this article examines how influencer practices intersect with institutional commemoration within hybrid media systems. The findings show that Instagram functions as a central arena of digital remembrance; that influencer and institutional posts differ systematically in format, contextual depth, and self-positioning; and that commemorative discourse is embedded within platform infrastructures structured by algorithmic visibility, engagement-metrics, and attention economies. Rather than replacing institutional memory, influencer activity operates within a longer history of mediated remembrance while reconfiguring how mnemonic authority is negotiated across institutional, vernacular, and commercial logics. The study demonstrates how collective memory is reshaped under conditions of media convergence, in which platform architectures and influencer cultures shape the circulation and interpretation of traumatic pasts.