Conference Agenda

Digital platforms’ governance model for cultural production is based on making content creators entirely responsible for producing, publishing and moderating their work. This arrangement makes digital influencers especially vulnerable to harassment, overworking, and arbitrary politics regarding content management and unfair censure. Since content creators are on their own, they have been deploying multiple strategic approaches to keep themselves and their content safe despite platforms’ lack of assistance. Many of them involve camaraderie, such as self-organized groups focused on information exchange and mutual support, and often they mobilize their fanbase to deal with safety issues, such as harassment, asking the fans to mass report aggressors to make their claim more relevant to platforms through engagement. We draw on a case study of the deletion and recovery of Pipoca & Nanquim YouTube channel to contextualize how Brazilian content creators learned to mobilize their fan bases to manage their vulnerability on social media platforms. Through a combination of case study methodology and narrative interviews with the Pipoca & Nanquim team, we propose an analysis of how fan labor is central for Brazilian content creators in regards to safety and acknowledgment by platforms’ administration. And, since digital influencers must rely only on their engagement to protect themselves, we also question how this context affects people from social minority groups who work as digital influencers in Brazil, reinforcing oppressive structures despite the DEI discourse often adopted by digital platforms representatives.

This study examines the role of cartography in The Witcher transmedia franchise, where the absence of an official map has led to diverse spatial interpretations by fans, game developers, and media adaptations. These maps function as "action spaces" (Abend & Harvey, 2015), shaping perceptions of geography and narrative coherence while also reflecting broader issues of authority and interpretation in fictional world-building. Fan-made maps, game maps, and those from the Netflix adaptation reveal divergent spatial logics, illustrating the performative nature of mapping (Gerlach, 2018) and the participatory processes of online communities.

Without a singular, authoritative map (Dodge, 2014), The Witcher fandom engages in active spatial construction, drawing from textual references and narrative cues. Online platforms such as Reddit, Discord, and wikis serve as arenas for debating accuracy, authenticity, and ownership, reflecting broader crowd-sourced knowledge production (Jenkins, 2006). These discussions not only influence fan engagement but also challenge traditional notions of intellectual property and transmedia authorship (Schiller, 2018).

By tracing these cartographic debates and mapping practices across multiple fan platforms, this research updates discussions on authorship, ownership, and participatory culture. It situates fictional cartography within contemporary digital knowledge production, expanding its relevance to transmedia storytelling, crowd-mapping, and internet fandom.

This paper explores how platform companies distribute software-based resources or “platform tools” strategically to accrue market power, securing a dominant position in diverse markets, and infrastructural power, extending and supplanting critical systems and services for cultural production. Using the toolkit TikTok One as a case study, I showcase how platform company TikTok distributes software-based resources to expand its organizational boundaries. I approach the empirical analysis of TikTok One by adapting methods from information systems, advocating that platform scholars frame platform tools as “boundary resources” that can be mapped using “unified modelling language” (UML) diagrams—visualizations particularly useful for recognizing the complexity of TikTok One and the distribution of platform tools as relational, contextual, and historical. The empirical analysis reveals that TikTok One supports TikTok’s rise by furthering the company's growth as a “multisided market” or its mediation of interactions between different user groups. It does so in two ways: (1) TikTok One increases the number and diversity of user groups (“sides”) and (2) TikTok One increases the number and kinds of interactions between the different user groups. In a nutshell, I argue that tool distribution through TikTok One is a strategy exploited by TikTok to drive growth and produce dependencies. In studying TikTok’s governance of platform tools, this case study helps unpack how TikTok first came to asymmetrically govern key software in the cultural industries—an understanding necessary to regulate platform growth and rupture platform dependencies.

The Academy Awards have long been a focal point in discussions about cinema, shaping public perceptions and industry trends. In the 2025 awards season, the French musical Emilia Pérez, centered on a Mexican transgender cartel leader, emerged as a strong contender, earning 13 Oscar nominations, including Best Actress for Karla Sofia Gáscon. However, controversy arose when Gáscon’s past social media posts, containing racist, Islamophobic, and anti-vaccine remarks, resurfaced, leading to widespread backlash on X and her removal from Netflix’s Oscar campaign.

This study examines how the media in five countries—Spain, Mexico, Brazil, France, and the United States—covered the scandal. Using Content Analysis (Bardin, 2006), we classified 139 news articles based on thematic focus, references to X, and portrayals of both the film and Gáscon. The findings indicate a uniform media approach, primarily emphasizing the scandal, Netflix’s response, and Gáscon’s public apology. Reports often framed her as the central figure in the controversy while downplaying other criticisms of the film.

The study also highlights the power dynamics between traditional media, streaming platforms, and digital activism. While Netflix initially controlled the narrative through an aggressive Oscar campaign, the virality of X played a decisive role in reshaping public discourse, demonstrating the influence of social media in cultural debates. Ultimately, Emilia Pérez serves as a case study of how digital platforms can challenge corporate narratives, raising questions about media imperialism, public accountability, and the limits of online mobilization.