iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

From Ukraine🇺🇦 to Gaza🇵🇸, Syria🇸🇾, Lebanon🇱🇧, and now India🇮🇳 & Pakistan🇵🇰, creators use SM platforms to make their conflicts more visible. They're curators, eyewitnesses, and living archives of atrocity. @moaerikssonkrut.bsky.social & I call them *War Influencers*; OA in @platformsnsociety.bsky.social 🧵

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

Israel, 2025. This is where the media and everyday civilians now stand morally. The front page of a major newspaper calling for the flattening of Gaza and the Hague, featuring a piece on one of the country's leading singers, with the headline. “I would vote for Kahane.” Yes, that Meir Kahane ⬇️

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

In the past 2y, I’ve served on the AoIR exec as the grad rep and advocated for the younger members of our community. We’ve made meaningful changes, and more to come! With elections open (nominations due April 2 🗳️) now is your chance to join! Don’t hesitate to reach out; happy to share experiences <3

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

New publication! 🚨 Together with my brill team (@taylorannabell.bsky.social & @cgoanta.bsky.social), we explore how parents turn kids into commodities on TikTok, diving into the nuances of *kidfluencers* & raising legal questions about platform governance. See🧵 journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Oh, really, Trump? You think? Well, the very architect of this death symbol now stands to your left, turning years of destruction into a hallmark of his regime’s policy.

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

The current discourse in Israel is: some openly cheer for the annihilation of Gaza, while others merely “see his point.” The latter scares me more as they cloak brutality in reason, making it sound logical, even justified. And they are the majority. The former are just honest about it.

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Because nothing says survival like Jewish people *genosplaining* to people in Gaza how to look and act in the face of atrocities.

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Platforms & your toxic ex: both gaslight you, but one calls it 'community guidelines'🚩 @bloggeronpole.bsky.social, Pam Briggs and I illuminate the lived experiences of creators on TikTok & Instagram, exposing how gaslighting is used as a strategy in moderation🧵👇 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

This is just a glimpse of the deep dehumanization built over years of being taught to see human lives in this region through a clear hierarchy, where those in Gaza are consigned to death, as though their lives were never meant to be lived.

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

POV of a person in Gaza, shared on an Israeli media outlet. While I hope 2025 ends the mass killings, I also wish for Israelis to rediscover their humanity. The endless wave of comments (below) asking “why are they still alive,” demanding the erasure of existence is unbearable👇

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

and my top pick from 2023 🥁 Playful Activism: Memetic Performances of Palestinian Resistance in TikTok #Challenges; I explore how Palestinian creators harness the platform's playful affordances (the POV, lip-sync, Duet, and Stitch) for activism work amidst war 🇵🇸 journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Special Issue on Methods in Visual Politics and Protest: Deconstruction, Reflexivity & femmix; The same fab team with the second part of our SI, providing pathways for deconstructing visual political narratives & offering nuanced accounts for studying visual data on platforms jdsr.se/ojs/index.ph...

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Special Issue on Methods in Visual Politics and Protest: mixed methods, data curation & anti-publics; The brill @suayozkula.bsky.social, Hadas Schlussel, Danka Slavnić & I draw together articles addressing core methodological challenges in the unpacking of political visuals jdsr.se/ojs/index.ph... 👇

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Playful Trauma: TikTok Creators and the Use of the Platformed Body in Times of War‏; The brill @moaerikssonkrut.bsky.social and I explore how TikTok's playful features, trends & aesthetics allow creators to cope with their traumatic experiences in war zones 🇺🇦 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... 👇

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

The Sound of Disinformation: TikTok, Computational Propaganda, and the Invasion of Ukraine‏; The brill @boesch.bsky.social and I delve into how TikTok's viral sounds spread disinformation with 🇷🇺 & 🇺🇦 propaganda curated, amplified & exploited via the For You 👇 journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

The Unsolicited Algorithm: Unveiling Gendered Harms and (non) Consent in Apple iOS Features‏; The brill @nicolettelittle.bsky.social and I explore how our iPhones have become trauma triggers—where AirDropped dick pics and 'Memories' resurface painful moments www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 👇

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Sadly, our iPhones have become sources of trauma. Perves can harass with their dick pic via AirDrop, and 'Memories' resurface painful moments we'd prefer to forget; @nicolettelittle.bsky.social & I delve into the unsolicited nature of algos with this OA piece (🧵) www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

I asked AI to do the work for you, and I’m still speechless seeing the result:

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

Insights into TikTok's ban in India, creators' daily navigation of restrictions, and public perceptions beautifully captured here 💪 www.researchgate.net/profile/Lin-...

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

and fascism flows through the veins of civilian society with alarming speed, evident in casual comments that paint every person in Gaza with the brush of terror. Around me, people tend to take pride in proclaiming, “We’re not like them”; seems the mirror of self-reflection needs thorough cleaning ❤️‍🩹

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

The New York Times cover; “who is to blame here?” Israelis often demand when seeing these images, “don’t dare omit Hamas!” Ok, so the true offenders are the fundamentalist forces that perpetuate death, piss on peace & condemn generations of children to ruin; well, still sounds like my government 1/2

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Allow me to translate: "Occupying Gaza is not an unthinkable concept; it is possible to reduce the population by half within two years."; this is Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli Minister of Finance. You truly don’t need my interpretation—as the language of inhumanity is painfully evident to us all ❤️‍🩹

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

And this: Israel’s Defense Minister announced the cessation of administrative detention orders for Jews in the West Bank; the meaning: 'Fascisrael' government fuels the ongoing extremist violence, granting them free rein to unleash devastation on Palestinian lives and property; they are terrorists.

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

An Arab teacher in Israel was killed when a Hezbollah missile struck her home. Meanwhile, an overwhelming number of individuals online are celebrating her death, cheering that 'another Arab' is gone. Let it be clear—these people are *Israel*, not *Israelis* 1\2

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 22/10/2024

Is it your first AOIR? You’re not alone! ✨🙌 Join us for the First Timers meet-up on day one of the conference at Sheffield (Oct 31) during lunchtime; a chill chance to connect, chat, and get to know; Look out for me & @ludludlud.bsky.social for deets; Welcome to your new (AoIR) family! 💞 🤩 #AoIR2024

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 30/09/2024

nowadays, Marcus Bösch and I continue our journey by delving into the phenomenon of IDF thirst traps on TikTok, where audiovisual memes, gender dynamics, and performance are strategically employed to enhance the army’s image and amplify soft propaganda tactics amidst the Gaza war👇

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 30/09/2024

high-volume: the 'Stop Moving—You’re Supposed to be Dead!' exemplifies 🇷🇺 attempt to portray Ukrainians as fabricators of casualties to justify Russian aggression; the video was actually footage from Austrian climate protests, altered with fake text and audio to mislead viewers👇

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 30/09/2024

mid-volume: the 'Russian warship, go f*** yourself' meme exemplifies how misleading content spreads via sound, as a military radio bit falsely associated with the story of 13 🇺🇦 soldiers heroically dying in a battle over Snake Island, a narrative adopted by Ukrainian officials👇

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 30/09/2024

low-volume: the 'Dancing Soldiers' exemplify how sounds on TikTok can be woven into pre-planned choreography, blending playful audiovisual memes with war scenes to create dance videos that swiftly scale templates, crafting pro-🇺🇦 narratives humanizing soldiers & boosting morale👇

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 30/09/2024

we specified sounds used in more than 36,000 videos, classified into a typology of six types of audio-based mis- and disinformation, ranging from low (satire & parody content) to mid (false context & imposter content) to high volume (manipulated & fabricated content)👇

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 22/09/2024

on TikTok, the *playful platformed body* acts as the medium, message and amplifier for expressing trauma; this body—shaped by, for, and under platform constraints—operates within an attention economy that propels some creators' bodies to virality while exiling others to silence 👇

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 22/09/2024

*playful trauma* is the cringe moment when creators turn their grief, struggle and resilience into content, blending levity & gravity to trigger exposure by subverting norms of coping; it’s a counterintuitive performance of hardship alongside the mundane that sparks dissonance 👇

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 22/09/2024

1) Playful POV: creators embed firsthand war experiences into reproducible templates using subversive dialects; 2) Playful Dance: creators visiblize trauma via bodily performances; 3) Playful Dialogue: creators use conversational features ("reply with video") to educate on war 👇

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 22/09/2024

utilizing digital ethnography, we engaged with the “for you” page as our ethnographic site, leading us to popular creator practices that blend platform vernacular with embodied ludic attitudes; we illuminate three memetic formats that epitomize *playful trauma* 👇

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 22/09/2024

drawing on theories of play, humor, the body—and its affinity to trauma, we explore how TikTok's assemblage of features, trends & aesthetics creates infrastructural pathways for creators to weave their traumatic experiences into the platform's architecture and amplify war zone 👇

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 24/02/2024

we argue that memetic expressions, encapsulating condensed war memorialization, leave lasting impacts on cultural trauma narratives via platform infrastructure; this circulation of trauma ensures prolonged exposure & transforms users' profiles into living evidence repositories👇

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 24/02/2024

employing POV aesthetics, users leverage influencers' practices to draw viewers into mundane aspects of war; Valeria reveals her 🥑-free bomb shelter fridge, ironically translating her *sacrifice* for a millennial audience for whom 🥑 symbolizes financial stability & well-being👇

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 24/02/2024

TikTok’s culture of conent recycling enables users to playfully appropriate viral memes (i.e., "it's corn") and place cultural trauma within empathetic & interactive context; they make warfare more relatable, digestible & negotiable in ways that intensify generational attention👇

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 24/02/2024

exploring the case of @valerisssh, we delve into the aestheticization of trauma on TikTok, showing how features (Stitch, Comment Responses & #Challenge) provide users with novel dialects to narrate their experiences; they boost visibility, awareness & mobilize community support👇

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 24/02/2024

we start by identifying *war influencers* as a politically motivated cohort utilizing platform vernacular to enhance awareness & access to their traumatic scenery of war zones, rosing to fame by accelerated virality; keep an 👀 to a profound typology in our coming journal paper👇

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 15/01/2024

#AoIR2024 is embracing a broader scope of hybrid participation, thanks to the persistent efforts of our community and the dedication of those bringing it to life (Sophie Bishop 🥰 Gabriel Pereira)

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 10/12/2023

our third session is coming (14 Dec) with an exciting DSA ride 🎢 our experts (@cgoanta.bsky.social & Jacob van de Kerkhof) untie two major act's undertakings: *trusted flaggers* & *data access*; pls register (👇) & stay tuned for our upcoming *monetization* session! ✨ docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 30/11/2023

buckle up: the regulation, governance, and platforms rollercoaster ride has begun!🎢 ✨with the magic team: @cgoanta.bsky.social @Taylor Annabell & Jacob van de Kerkhof!

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 21/11/2023

DSA > Platforms > Regulation > Policies > Content > Influencers > Monetization > Let's start to make sense of this legal terrain! @cgoanta.bsky.social, Taylor Annabell & myself aim to equip media scholars with access & clarity to nuances in our mini-series come 🤩 come, join us 🤩 link for reg 👇

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 01/11/2023

and when your friends understand exactly what can light a smile in times of adversity, they deliver additional variants, reminding you that true friendship still exists✨🥲😍 @jessmaddox.bsky.social @krystenstein.bsky.social @drbrandonharris.bsky.social

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Tom Divon | توم ديفون | תום דיבון @tomdivon.bsky.social · 31/10/2023

hate report: 💔 Israeli-Arabs face discrimination on the local taxi app solely due to their Arab names. 💔 Israelis and European Jews change their names on the Wolt app, fearing Muslim delivery drivers. 💔 My niece's Arabic teacher's classroom is empty due to parental disapproval of Arabic learning.

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