Reaction Machine. Social Media Tribunals

Social media has spread into the furthest corners of our lives. It structures the flow of information, channels attention and contributes to the formation of a highly reactive public sphere. This reactionary machine produces fake news, stokes hatred and leads people to publicly attack and insult one another, and to set up tribunals. Rupert Gaderer uses literary texts, theatre pieces and essayistic interventions, as well as court cases, self-help guides and ‘shitstorm’ simulations, to show how digital conflicts are aesthetically reflected upon, reproduced or criticised: in paranoid observation logs, in counter-attacks against haters, in poetic forms of digital insult, in literary hate speech on stage, and in analyses of right-wing ideologies. In doing so, this book outlines, not least, aesthetic strategies of resistance against the destructive dynamics of social media – moving beyond resigned lamentations about the coarsening of debate culture and illusory demands for a complete disconnection from the internet or a sweeping legal curtailment of the platforms.