[en] Exploring safety and agency in social media: a case study of online crossdressing

Abstract

Introduction. Are there safe spaces for the construction of online communities with diverse gender identities and sexual desires? What makes some online spaces safer than others? And for whom? Does the architecture of these spaces influence the ways in which users navigate the Internet? Methodology. To address these questions, we conducted a digital ethnography on a social media platform oriented towards the Spanish-speaking crossdresser community. Findings and analysis. Our analysis suggests that this platform acts as a digital counterpublic, as it allows users to inhabit a safe environment for self-expression, building support networks, organizing as a collective, and articulating their sexual intimacies. Based on these findings, we infer that online safety and agency are closely interrelated, the latter being a result of the first. In addition, we found that the concept of online safety should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, in accordance with the feminist perspective, where online safety is always construed in a situated manner and conceives the subjects of study as active agents involved in the definition of the concept itself. Ethical considerations. The research process raised ethical questions of great relevance to the conclusions of this study, suggesting that the same factors to be considered when conducting research in digital platforms should be contemplated when designing and navigating online safe spaces. We thus propose that, both in carrying out online qualitative research and in the construction of online safe spaces, the following aspects should be taken into consideration: the implications of the privacy settings offered by the platform, the vulnerability of the users that populate it, the sensitivity of the topics covered by the platform’s community and, last but not least, an ongoing negotiation and reaffirmation of consent in the utilization of the users’ personal data.