Extremely Online
Red Pepper #246 winter 2024
Online platforms are now central to political agitating, organising and (mis)educating across the political spectrum.
We examine how movements are leveraging online resources – from Kenyans battling corruption via TikTok to Chinese netizens dodging censorship – and navigating threats from hacks, shutdowns, billionaire buyouts, hostile algorithms and ravenous AI.
Looking to action on the ground, we cover youth and community-led movements mobilising for justice including housing justice in Grimsby, decolonisation in Kanaky, university divestment from Israel, and global climate action.
Plus an essay on the Grenfell inquiry, books, previews, and more!
In this issue
Extremely Online
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Twitch and the online left
Political livestreaming shows news consumption has become a form of community participation in which political ideology is reinforced, argues Samuel Rafanell-Williams
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Breaking up with my X
Tom Whyman traces a personal journey with Elon Musk’s social media platform: from a coming-of-age love story to Twittering off
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Behind the ‘Great Firewall of China’
Jiannan Shi reports on China’s internet censorship – and the creative ways people are finding to sidestep it
In this issue
Essay
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Grenfell: The cost of austerity
The damning Grenfell inquiry report reveals entrenched private sector corruption and public sector failings – and our need to overhaul…
In this issue
Youth
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The view from student encampments for Palestine
Students have taken sustained collective action against institutional complicity in the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Here, three activists reflect on the university encampments and the…
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Kenya’s youth-led revolution
Rasna Warah reports on how young people in and beyond Kenya are using social media to challenge corrupt, old-school politicians
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Quotas, protests and political monsters in Bangladesh
Student power is resurgent in Bangladesh after the success of the antidiscrimination movement. Nafis Hasan questions what changes lie ahead
In this issue
Features
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New life on the Marsh
In Grimsby’s East Marsh ward, a community effort is battling with scant resources to revitalise an area crushed by economic forces outside its control, writes…
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Is rave culture political?
Despite facing state repression, rave culture continues to be a space for political expression and collective action, writes Alex Carter
