Scholars are increasingly addressing the societal and ethical implications of AI, raising important concerns about its broader impact. Although AI systems offer unique affordances as a standalone technology, the development of tools and applications that aim to challenge and counteract the growing power of AI are significant. Such resistance might take the form of disrupting AI-trained models, challenging algorithmic biases, or exposing the opaque workings of AI systems. This study focuses on the links between the counter AI tools and the AI affordances, by exploring how such tools develop oppositional affordances, for users, creators and artists to navigate and resist the power of AI systems. Findings indicate that such counter AI- tools can redefine the boundaries of AI-human interaction, offering alternatives that might empower users to regain control over AI systems expansion. Through this critical examination, the discussion contributes to a broader understanding of how counter-AI interventions, projects and tools might reshape the technological landscape and introduce new tactics for resisting the challenges of AI-driven platforms.

Many scholars have studied how Chinese internet users creatively navigate China’s highly controlled social media platforms in order to voice critical sentiments. Yet the specific forms and sources of user creativity are still little known. This article uncovers one particular form of creativity that allows users to express critical sentiments under political constraints. Borrowing from the Chinese term qianyi (潜移), which the French sinologist Jullien (2015) translates as “submerged displacement,” I argue that Chinese internet users achieve a kind of submerged displacement of internet control by creatively deploying the affordances of narrative forms and social media platforms. Online critical sentiments proliferated during the COVID-19 pandemic, even as residents’ mobility and spaces for online speech were strictly limited. This paper studies two instances of “submerged displacement” during the COVID pandemic. By analyzing two conventional narrative forms transposed to social media – the diary and the biography, I show how the combined affordances of narrative forms and social media platforms made it possible for users to quietly displace internet censorship and political control to share critical sentiments. Data for this article come from the author’s online ethnography during the COVID-19 pandemic. They consist of thousands of posts and user comments collected from WeChat and Weibo from January 2020 to December 2022. With a focus on narrative forms and affordances, I followed the methods of narrative inquiry in the collection and analysis of texts (Clandinin 2023; Connelly & Clandinin 1990).

Recent developments in platform governance point to community-led moderation as an increasingly preferred solution by mainstream social media platforms when dealing with problematic content. While research has shown the benefits of involving online communities in content moderation efforts, this type of moderation is also prone to limitations, such as leaving volunteer moderators on their own heuristics to decide upon complex categories of content. Using Anna Tsing's (2015) metaphor of 'life among ruins', in this paper we examine an online community called the North Atlantic Fella Organization (NAFO) that had to turn to volunteer governance in face of increasing failures of centralised content moderation on Twitter/X. Its members, also known as ‘fellas’, have been active on the platform since May 2022 by debunking and ridiculing online falsehoods spread by highly visible Russian government accounts and pro-Russian actors, reporting problematic behaviour, as well as fundraising on behalf of Ukraine. We identify three types of moderation practices relevant to the collective – ‘soft-’, ‘hard-’, and ‘self’-moderation. While, for our participants, Russia’s war on Ukraine warranted such efforts, this community-led moderation required a high emotional and time investment on their behalf. Our findings attest to the ability of such practices to fill platform governance gaps, while also recognising the need for self-moderation and ongoing care for the community as vital for sustaining such practices.

This pilot study employed a decolonised, youth-centred methodology to challenge dominant discourses and hierarchies in knowledge production. The Distributed Data Generation (DDG) approach facilitated participatory workshops across Australia, India, and Indonesia, involving collaboration with local research centres and a youth organisation. This cross-cultural partnership aimed to unsettle Western assumptions about research methodologies and knowledge representation.

DDG prioritises marginalised perspectives and has been used to collaborate with global South organisations for rights-based youth research. It enables rich data collection through participatory, child-centred workshops conducted simultaneously in multiple countries. This approach supports the decolonisation of youth knowledge by co-producing it with children and young people, addressing child-adult power imbalances.

The research engaged 128 participants aged 9 to 18 from diverse backgrounds, including urban and rural areas, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, migrants, and disadvantaged youth. Each participant attended a workshop to explore cultural expressions, ethics, responsibilities, and aspirations for culture-centred digital design.

Findings reveal that digital technology influences and shapes the cultural practices of young people in Australia, India, and Indonesia. Indian participants view culture through nationalism and ideology, while Australian children associate culture with material practices and the environment. Digital technologies were found to strengthen cultural identity and cross-cultural understanding, though concerns about minority culture representation were expressed.

Indian and Indonesian youth use digital platforms to learn about their own and other cultures, more so than Australian participants. Concerns about cultural exclusion, inappropriate content, and digital disharmony were highlighted, emphasising the need for inclusive digital design that reflects the lived experiences of diverse youth.