Conventional media have long filtered information and influenced public opinion. In the age of social media, this process has become algorithmic and targeted, separating the whole of society into thousands of small filter bubbles that construct collective orientations and pilot viral phenomena. This panel examines how machine learning and obscure algorithms analyze and manipulate individual affects into political sentiments, eventually amplifying class, gender, and racial bias. Is it possible to reverse engineer the expanding capturing of emotional data? Which forms of resistance are possible against social data algorithms? From upcoming European elections to data surveillance in India, the speakers will discuss and present new projects and strategies of algorithmic activism and data sovereignty.

The panel is organized in collaboration with KIM | HfG Karlsruhe.