ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on one of the most sophisticated technopolitical tactics of 15M activists, namely the massive appropriation and the savvy hijacking of the algorithms of corporate social platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. It explores the tactics through which the Indignados movement was able to bring mainstream media to its activist terrain and overturn their logic, namely personalisation, dispersion, and displacement. The chapter examines how Podemos was able to capitalise on 15M’s algorithmic political finesse while extending its reach through the incorporation of mainstream media into their political strategy. The impeccable assemblage of a strong algorithmic imaginary, a profound algorithmic knowledge, and a massive algorithmic appropriation is what made 15M’s algorithmic resistance so effective and lasting. In the Mexican scenario, strategies of algorithmic repression have been used to silence, defame, and attack activists. Issues of control and surveillance had serious consequences on activists who developed a ‘social media paranoia’ around digital platforms and mobile devices.
