ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the influence of online communication on HIV transmission among gay men in Serbia via unsafe sexual practices. It explores online communication practices, self-presentation strategies and identity constructions related to HIV status. Particular online self-presentations and unsafe sexual practices, together with specific understandings of intimacy, could have an effect on the possibility of HIV transmission among gay men. I will argue that the merging between technological/online/virtual and biomedical advancements has implications for the transformation of sexual practices and representational modes among gay men in Serbia, in a way that potentially increases the risk of HIV transmission. My key research question is: what are the implications, if any, of the relative anonymity of the internet and of health disclosure strategies of gay men for HIV transmission? In particular I will look at the online practices of ‘strategic (in)visibility’ (Davis & Flowers, 2014), that is, at elusive disclosures of HIV status, as well as at the bareback (that is, condomless) sexual subcultures which are firmly anchored in the internet.
