Beating Algorithmic Discrimination: Maneuvering Digital Surveillance to Indigenize the Narrative

Abstract

Social media platforms are important tools for the new generation of youth activists. However, digital surveillance practices are employed to punish, discipline, and silence indigenous communities. In this article, we explore how digital surveillance of Palestinian content on Facebook and Instagram manifested during the 2021 Sheikh Jarrah movement and how Instagram and Facebook users maneuvered these surveillance practices. Drawing on in-depth interviews, we find that activists are exposed to multiple intersecting structures of surveillance and censorship—manifested in surveillance by social media companies, the Israeli occupation, the Palestinian government, the workplace, and familial-societal networks—which we conceptualize as layered surveillance. We examine the creative visual and textual tactics activists utilize to maneuver layered surveillance, arguing that these tactics serve to reinforce indigenous knowledge and resilience. We conclude by reflecting on the interlocking global forces imbricated in the relationship between technology and oppression.