From an artist and TikTok creator, a critical look at the controversial app and its effect on cultural heritage, artificial intelligence, community organizing, and digital censorship.
In Revolutionary Algorithms, Torey Akers approaches TikTok with a deep understanding of the app, as both a prolific creator and consumer of its content....
From an artist and TikTok creator, a critical look at the controversial app and its effect on cultural heritage, artificial intelligence, community organizing, and digital censorship.
In Revolutionary Algorithms, Torey Akers approaches TikTok with a deep understanding of the app, as both a prolific creator and consumer of its content. In these essays, she interrogates how the TikTok ban and the multiple genocides happening around the world are deeply intertwined; how the app can empower creators, amplify social movements, and document abuses of power. She addresses the good, bad, and sometimes uncanny parts of maneuvering and communicating in a digital space.
As a new era of social media looms, Akers makes the case for techno-progressivism, looking toward a future where TikTok continues to connect, inspire, and create space for more intersectionality, equity, and joy.
"Torey Akers is one of only a handful of writers capable of delivering a slim manifesto—a phrase which admittedly shortchanges Revolutionary Algorithms, a book which impresses beyond its page count—packed with this much depth, research, and insight, while also being a joy to read. It's a testament to both the expansiveness of Akers' mind and the careful constraint of her prose. Here, she announces herself as one the sharpest cultural critics at work today, taking on no less than the most consequential social media phenomena of our time with unparalleled brilliance." —Mychal Denzel Smith, New York Times bestselling and Kirkus Prize-winning author of Stakes Is High
