Conceptualizing the Algorithmic Queerness in Digital Marketing Space

In 2021, the Chinese government advocated for the censorship of Niang Pao (sissy-pants) culture in the media. Scholars have discussed this censorship as a manifestation of hegemonic national power aimed at oppressing queer groups in order to maintain the country’s heteronormative status. Against this backdrop of social and political pressure on the queer community in China, the digital market space of queer communities has inevitably been affected. Algorithms have faced criticism for their complicity in reinforcing oppression. Marketers and governments have sought to exert control by designing algorithms that eliminate queer content from digital spaces. However, despite the censorship, much algorithmically recommended queer content continues to circulate and remains popular (e.g., many queer beauty influencers are highly popular on social media). So, how did this happen?

This chapter conceptualizes the queerness of algorithms at (1) micro (individuals), (2) meso (algorithmic market), and (3) macro levels (government and hegemonic ideology) in disrupting powerful institutions censorship control. In doing so, we studied one of the most popular Chinese algorithmic platforms Xiaohongshu (RED), which has been described as an “online oasis” for queer communities in China, with theoretical underpinnings from queer theory to understand algorithms as a non-human agent. The case illustrates that algorithms can be conceptualized as non-human resistant agents, even when they are not necessarily designed to be so. We hope the chapter opens the discussion for understanding algorithm as a resistant force in queer social movement.