Commercial social media platforms have become integral to contemporary forms of protests. They are intensely used by advocacy groups, non-governmental organisations, social movements and other political actors who increasingly integrate social media platforms into broader practices of organizing and campaigning. But, aside from the many advantages of extensive mobilization opportunities at low cost, what are the implications of social media corporations being involved in these grassroots movements?

This book takes a much-needed critical approach to the relationship between social media and protest. Highlighting key issues and concerns in contemporary forms of social media activism, including questions of censorship, surveillance, individualism, and temporality, the book combines contributions from some of the most active scholars in the field today. Advancing both conceptual and empirical work on social media and protest, and with a range of different angles, the book provides a fresh and challenging outlook on a very topical debate.

Lina Dencik is Lecturer in the School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University, UK.

Oliver Leistert is a postdoctoral researcher at the DFG Research Training Group Automatisms at University Paderborn, Germany.

Introduction, Lina Dencik and Oliver Leistert/ 1. Promise and Practice in Studies of Social Media and Movements. Sebastian Haunss/Part I: Algorithmic Control and Visibility /2. The Revolution Will Not Be Liked: On the Systemic Constraints of Corporate Social Media Platforms for Protests,Oliver Leistert/ 3. Mobilizing in Times of Social Media: From a Politics of Identity to a Politics of Visibility,Stefania Milan/Part II: Temporal Alienation and Redefining Spaces /4. Social Media, Immediacy and the Time for Democracy: Critical Reflections on Social Media as Temporalising Practices,Veronica Barassi/ 5. This Space Belongs to Us!: Protest Spaces in Times of Accelerating Capitalism,Anne Kaun/Part III: Surveillance, Censorship and Political Economy /6. Social Media Censorship, Privatised Regulation, and New Restrictions to Protest and Dissent,Arne Hintz/ 7. Social Media Protest in Context: Surveillance, Information / Management, and Neoliberal Governance in Canada,Joanna Redden/ 8. Preempting Dissent: From Participatory Policing to Collaborative Filmmaking,Greg Elmer/Part IV: Dissent and Fragmentation From Within /9. The Struggle Within: Discord, Conflict and Paranoia in Social Media Protest,Emiliano Treré/ 10. Social Media and the 2013 Protests in Brazil: The Contradictory Nature of Political Mobilization in the Digital Era,Mauro P. Porto and João Brant/Part V: Myths and Organisational Trajectories /11. Social Media and the New Authenticity of Protest.Lina Dencik/ 12. Network Cultures and the Architecture of Decision.Geert Lovink and Ned Rossiter/ Notes on Contributors