The 8th Meeting of the Committee on Social Communication and Media Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Algorithms, Resistance, and Platform Power

On 24 February 2025, the 8th meeting of the Committee on Social Communication and Media Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences was held online, with the participation of Committee members, experts, and an invited guest. The main item on the agenda was the presentation of the book Algorithms of Resistance. The Everyday Fight against Platform Power by Prof. Tiziano Bonini and Dr Emiliano Treré, followed by a discussion on the mechanisms of power exercised by digital platforms and the possibilities of everyday resistance to algorithmic control.

In his presentation, Prof. Bonini outlined the key arguments of the book, emphasizing the agency of users, cultural producers, platform workers, and activists in negotiating their relationships with algorithms. Drawing on ethnographic research and the perspective of moral economy, he argued that algorithms operate along a continuum of tensions between platform interests and user practices, and that platform society becomes a field of everyday, often invisible forms of resistance. The discussion addressed, among other issues, the concept of platform power, forms of algorithmic domination, and ways of supporting bottom-up democratic practices in the digital environment.

In the section devoted to current matters, organizational issues related to the functioning of PAN committees were discussed, including the work of the Council of Committee Chairs of the Polish Academy of Sciences, regulations concerning scientific awards, and initiatives aimed at developing scholarly communication and knowledge dissemination. Attention was also drawn to the need for community integration through in-person meetings and to the Committee’s engagement in international research initiatives concerning democracy, media, and political communication.