The increasing corporatization of higher education has led to the “academic industrial complex.” For scholars, this often means a commodification of learning, where competitive research outputs take precedence over the thoughtful production of knowledge, or collaborative academic or activist projects that do not explicitly benefit the university financially. Researchers engaging with toxic online communities must navigate the ethical, methodological, and personal challenges of producing knowledge in this context – often with little support or understanding from university administrators and institutional review boards.

This fishbowl initiates a conversation about the complexities and risks associated with researching dangerous, toxic, and unsavory online communities – for instance, those that espouse white nationalism, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia, conspiracy theories, etc. – in this context.

We build on the conference theme to conceptualize the increasingly neoliberal academe as an industry which can simultaneously foster innovation and knowledge-production while also placing limits on researchers. We engage with the time constraints that emerge, especially for early-career scholars, in sitting with one’s data, especially when the data points are human interactions. Inspired by critical internet scholars (Acker & Donovan, 2019; Kuo & Marwick, 2021), we view our role as internet researchers of unsavory communities to be that of exposing the contradictions, complexities, and nuance in the production of harmful and problematic information. Our fishbowl aims to foster a dialogue on the challenges of doing critical internet research as academia increasingly values and rewards fast-paced production and metrics.

We bring together scholars from Communication, Information, Journalism, and Media Studies who research unsavory populations, including the alt-right, anti-abortion activists, conspiracy theorists, men’s rights activists, and progressive trolls who attack journalists, in various contexts and countries. This session is designed to inspire inclusive dialogue, thoughtful and respectful disagreement, and, ultimately, a space for all participants to express challenges and foster solutions.