Dr Carolina Are

Research Fellow

Department: Psychology

Dr. Carolina Are is an Innovation Fellow researching on the intersection between online abuse and censorship. Her research on social media moderation, platform governance and algorithm bias has been published in Porn Studies, First Monday, Journalism and Feminist Media Studies, in which she authored the first academic study on the shadowbanning of pole dancing. Dr Are's work has been featured in the BBC, MIT Technology Review, Business Insider, Vice, Wired and Mashable, as well as in a series of bestselling books. She is also a blogger and creator herself, as well as a writer, pole dance instructor and award-winning activist.

Dr Carolina Are's first ongoing project at the CDC investigates Instagram and TikTok’s approach to malicious flagging against ‘grey area’ content, or content that toes the line of compliance with social media’s community guidelines. In absence of social media platforms’ communications or transparency about their moderation processes, her two-year study aims to infer Instagram and TikTok’s approach to moderating grey area content by focusing on user experience.

Email Carolina

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
An autoethnography of automated powerlessness: lacking platform affordances in Instagram and TikTok account deletions, Are, C. 1 May 2023, In: Media, Culture and Society
The emotional and financial impact of de-platforming on creators at the margins, Are, C., Briggs, P. 2023, In: Social Media and Society
The Shadowban Cycle: an autoethnography of pole dancing, nudity and censorship on Instagram, Are, C. 17 Nov 2022, In: Feminist Media Studies
Sex in the shadows of celebrity, Are, C., Paasonen, S. 2 Oct 2021, In: Porn Studies
A “Chosen” Hope with a “Gingerbread” Outcome: Democratization of (Media) Power in Buffy The Vampire Slayer as a Metaphor of Online Abuse on High-Profile Criminal Cases, Are, C. 1 May 2020, In: Slayage - The Journal of Whedon Studies
A corpo-civic space: A notion To address social media’s corporate/civic hybridity, Are, C. 1 Jun 2020, In: First Monday
Fire WERK With Me, Are, C. 2020, Rupaul's Drag Race and Philosophy , Chicago, Illinois, US, Open Court Publishing
How Instagram’s algorithm is censoring women and vulnerable users but helping online abusers, Are, C. 3 Jul 2020, In: Feminist Media Studies
Book review: John Mair, Tor Clark, Neil Fowler, Raymond Snoddy and Richard Tait (eds) Anti-social media? The impact on journalism and society, Are, C. 1 Apr 2019, In: Journalism
Patterns of media coverage repeated in online abuse on high-profile criminal cases, Are, C. 1 Nov 2019, In: Journalism

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Invited talk: The UNSEEN 2022
Invited talk: Autoethnographies of 'automated powerlessness' in Instagram and TikTok account deletions 2022
Invited talk: Autoethnographies of 'automated powerlessness' in Instagram and TikTok account deletions 2022
Invited talk: Autoethnographies of 'automated powerlessness' in Instagram and TikTok account deletions 2022
Invited talk: MozFest 2021 2021
Invited talk: Algorithms For Her 2020
Invited talk: When online abuse and conspiracy theories collide 2019
Invited talk: The Politics and Ethics of Social Media Trolling Research: Challenges and New Frameworks 2018

Qualifications

Criminology PhD February 01 2021
Criminology MA (Hons) July 15 2017
Journalism BA July 17 2014
Certificate in Academic Practice

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