Disrupting Big Tech: Sociology’s Role in Interrogating AI and Social Media

Session Submission Type: Paper Session (90 minute)

Description

Artificial intelligence (AI) and social media, two of the most popular Big Tech products, are often celebrated as engines of innovation and connection. However, sociological research reveals how they reproduce and intensify longstanding inequalities. This session brings together critical perspectives on the racialized, gendered, and sexualized dynamics embedded in algorithmic systems and platform governance. From predictive analytics that reinforce stereotypes, to content moderation practices that disproportionately censor queer and trans voices, to surveillance technologies that target communities of color, Big Tech’s infrastructures are deeply implicated in the maintenance of social hierarchies.

At the same time, these digital spaces are sites of resistance, where marginalized groups mobilize against erasure, contest algorithmic invisibility, and reimagine technologies for justice. Papers in this session may examine the political economy of Big Tech, including the racialized and gendered labor that underpins content moderation and data extraction, as well as the commodification of identity in influencer economies. Submissions could also highlight activist interventions, feminist and queer approaches to data science, and community-led audits of algorithmic systems that challenge the myth of technological neutrality.

By weaving together critiques of power with visions for transformation, this session underscores sociology’s unique role in interrogating AI and social media platforms. The session asks how sociologists can disrupt Big Tech’s dominance while amplifying the creative practices of resistance that flourish within and against these systems. Ultimately, the session positions sociology not only as a discipline of critique but also as a catalyst for building equitable digital futures—futures in which race, gender, and sexualities are not sites of exploitation, but foundations for justice, visibility, and collective liberation.

Sub Unit

• Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology Section / Disrupting Big Tech: Sociology’s Role in Interrogating AI and Social Media

Presider

• Dhiraj Murthy, University of Texas at Austin

Individual Presentations

• From Muscle to Metrics: Artificial Intelligence as the Next Plough Hypothesis - Barbara J. Feldman, New College of Florida

• “ ‘It’s not intentional stealing all of the time’: How Influencers Perform Race on TikTok” - Lauren Michelle Harvey, Duke University

• Reflexivity Under Algorithmic Capitalism: Negotiating Ethics and Bias in Big Tech - Hannah Bacol, University of Hawaii at Manoa

• Resisting Big Tech: Algorithmic Problems and Technological Sovereignty - Sara Schoonmaker, University of Redlands; Jose Marichal, California Lutheran University

• Sexual-Self-Experimentation in the Age of Platform and Algorithm: The Case of Sexfluencer/Wanghuang in Hong Kong - Chi Fung Wong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Session Organizer

• Dhiraj Murthy, University of Texas at Austin