Liliana Bounegru*, Maya Livio*, Lucy Chinen*, Asher Boersma*, Natalia Sanchez Querubin*. 2014. “#TheFamily Ties: Performing the Network and Sexuality on Twitter.” Digital Methods Wiki, University of Amsterdam. *All authors contributed equally.
This data spring analyzed a corpus of tweets around the subject of “revenge porn”, specifically centered around Twitter user Hunter Moore. In 2010, Moore started the website IsAnyoneUp, on which he posted amateur-produced pornography. Unlike the majority of pornography shared on ‘tube’ sites, the people depicted on IsAnyoneUp did not operate under aliases, but were identified by name, address, employer, and social network profiles. Moreover, a significant part of the material was published without the consent of the persons portrayed. Through the site, Moore became the face of what is called revenge porn. After several legal disputes, Moore shut down the site in 2012, and focused his online presence on Twitter. As of January 15, 2014, he had over 500,000 Twitter followers who refer to themselves as #TheFamily, after the Manson Family, with Moore frequently addressed as TheFather. Moore continues to post explicit material and asks his followers to do likewise, formulating specific #assignments which often result in nudity or humiliation. In this data sprint, we set out to better understand the images circulated in the #TheFamily network, and asked: What animates this group, and what kinds of activity do the Twitter hashtags #Thefamily and #TheFather organize?
RESEARCH THEMES: TECHNOFEMINISM, DIGITAL METHODS
