Platformization of the web (Helmond, 2015), which includes the marketization, enclosure and attempted control of data by platform companies, has made studying digital platforms such as Facebook, Google or Amazon challenging as commercial companies have become increasingly reluctant to provide researchers with large-scale access to their data or processes (Burgess, 2021). One of the few exceptions to this has been Twitter, which has provided researchers with free access to an application programming interface (API) to download and analyze content from the site since 2006. However since the takeover by Elon Musk access to the Twitter/X algorithm has effectively ended for most researchers.

With limited access provided by platforms directly, how are researchers and policy makers going to be able to see inside the ‘black box’ of digital platforms and their algorithms for effective regulation and legislation, to protect and enhance the digital experience for consumers, businesses and the community, and to ensure we have responsible, ethical and inclusive online spaces for all? To address these issues, a new wave of methodological innovation is looking to move beyond a primary or sole reliance on APIs for digital platform data. In the last few years researchers have begun experimenting with new methods for gathering data based on partnering with users through data donations and other citizen science approaches. The increasing power of digital platforms and the complex, personalised ways they mediate the interactions between users and content show that capturing the 'digital traces' of user behaviour is no longer enough. Rather, the observability of platforms can only happen at the interface between myriad user experiences and platform operations, giving rise to new methodological questions. These novel methods also require new skills, tools, frameworks and research infrastructure to support data collection and governance.

Data donation methods involve users volunteering to participate in a research project by contributing their personal data and other information or interactive experiences with an application or platform (Ohme & Araujo, 2023). In the last few years a range of projects have been undertaken around the world using data donation approaches and developing bespoke tools and processes including browser extensions and data download packages. Yet, given the power and scale of digital platforms in almost every aspect of social and economic life we need to go beyond small-scale, bespoke software and tools if we are to achieve an adequate level of platform observability and accountability.

This requires a level of national investment in research infrastructure to support a new generation of research methods and skills for humanities and social science researchers. Large-scale, national research infrastructure (NRI) projects to support digital platform research using data donations are now underway in the US and the Netherlands. The Australian Internet Observatory is a new, four-year initiative developing a range of tools for digital platform observability including data download packages, browser extensions, mobile streaming, machine learning and data visualisation dashboards. This presentation provides an overview of these data collection approaches, examples of the kinds of data and analysis possible, and the infrastructure, ethics and legal considerations.

Maps are never neutral. They are a flattening of reality, both literally and figuratively. In the digital age, mapping technologies have become central to how users navigate, interpret, and interact with their environments. Digital services offered by Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Meta embed mapping functions into their broader platform infrastructures, shaping both the physical and informational landscapes around us.

This project adopts counter-mapping and other critical cartographic methods to interrogate the ways major digital platforms reconfigure our world. It will gather data to visualise the relationships between user, place, and targeted content – specifically search results and ads – in order to highlight, characterise and critique the algorithmic processes that might drive such targeting. The first phase of the project involves systematically collecting the data produced while using these platforms, with an emphasis on the ads shown across time and context.

For this conference, I will present initial findings from a standalone data visualisation titled “We Think You’ll Like it Here”. This interactive, browser-based work takes the form of a growing virtual village, where each structure represents an ad that was shown to me. Ads are grouped by category and visualised as buildings within distinct neighbourhoods, with new streets and homes appearing as additional ads are encountered. Aggregate statistics such as ad frequency, timing, and category distribution offer insight into how the mapping algorithms ‘see’ me as a user, and how such representations might be critiqued through counter-mapping.

Religion comprises various ways in which humans negotiate their relationship with the transcendent, either alone or in communities. While the social institution of religion is more or less geographically bounded, the online world has connected the social structures beyond imagination, thus expanding the realm of religious relationships and practices. In the era of information saturation and social media, new forms of religiosity emerge daily. Digital Religion, an emerging field that examines the integration of online and offline religious practices, provides a framework for understanding new forms of faith and religious expression in the internet age of twenty-first century. Focusing on the emergence of the phenomenon of Digital Religion in the Indian context, this study explores how digital media reconfigures embodied religious practices such as darshan (sacred viewing) and pilgrimage in post-pandemic India. With temples livestreaming rituals, virtual pilgrimages replacing physical journeys, and mobile apps offering daily aarti, the devotional experience has entered the virtual domain. The paper investigates how these transformations impact Hindu religiosity's sensory, spatial, and affective dimensions, particularly embodied devotion. Through case studies such as live telecasts from Kashi Vishwanath, Tirupati Balaji, ISKCON, and mobile applications like Shemaroo Bhakti and Sri Mandir, the paper interrogates whether digital media can carry the emotional and embodied charge that characterizes traditional forms of worship. Drawing from religious studies, media anthropology, and affect theory, the study argues that digital devotional practices do not merely simulate physical ones; they produce new devotional subjectivities and sensory regimes. While some may view this shift as commodification or loss, this paper sees it as a complex renegotiation of bhakti and embodiment in an increasingly digitized religious landscape.

This study investigates the digital migration of American TikTok users (“TikTok refugees”) to Xiaohongshu (RedNote) following renewed U.S. legislative threats against TikTok in early 2025. Conceptualizing digital platforms as "digital archipelagos," each with distinct cultural and algorithmic norms, the research explores how American users adapt their content and identities to Xiaohongshu’s uniquely Chinese aesthetic, social commerce structures, and platform logic. It also examines domestic Chinese users’ reactions to this influx, interrogating how such interactions reveal platform-based expressions of national belonging and cultural gatekeeping. Employing multi-sited digital ethnography from January to May 2025, the study analyzes content production, self-presentation strategies, algorithmic engagement, and interactional patterns across 10–12 refugee accounts, alongside qualitative thematic coding of 100–150 Chinese user comments. Ultimately, this research contributes to debates on platform sovereignty, algorithmic nationalism, and the geopolitics of cultural translation within fragmented digital spaces.