The Platformization of Violence: Toward a Concept of Discursive Toxicity on Social Media (Social Media + Society)

This article aims to address this gap by examining the significance of toxicity in discourse and how the infrastructure of social media platforms facilitates the emergence of toxic discourses. It argues that while toxicity and violence are related, they are distinct phenomena. Toxicity, as a dimension of symbolic violence, contaminates debates and discourses, and is enabled by the characteristics of platformization in online interactions. Thus, toxicity is an effect of platforms mediating social interactions.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20563051231224264