This talk will explore media spaces in and around Gaza. Our first focus will be on social media platforms, where warzonestransform into content and creators immerse themselves in the online mediatization of daily atrocities. Utilizingframeworks of platform vernaculars and visibility, we will explore how creators navigate their trauma into algorithmicdesirability, weaving it into platform features and translating it into global internet dialects. We will glimpse at theirvoices and motivations, demystifying the spectacle of their online performances by revealing the precarious conditionsunder which they produce content. The second area of focus involves AI tools that foster creativity in Palestinianactivism online. In this space, creators utilize AI-driven imaginaries to reencode resistance, rebuild infrastructures, andredefine an alternate past, present, and future for Gaza. We will explore their practices and narratives throughframeworks of autonomy while raising critical questions about how AI templates aestheticize the representation of Gaza,exemplified by cases like “All Eyes on Rafha.” Overall, this talk serves as a segment in a broader and essential dialogue,aiming to break media silos and illuminate the struggles of marginalized communities, such as Palestinian creators, whoconfront the dual dehumanization of their identity both offline and online.
Tom Divon is an ethnographer of user-platform interacations, focusing on creator culture, platform affordances, and user-generated content. In his PhD taking pleace in the Department of Communication at The Hebrew Univeristy of Jerusalem, Divon explores the socio-political subcultures of platforms across three distinct domains on TikTok: (1) Memory: Creators’ Engagement with Historical Commemoration and Education, (2) Activisim: Creators’ perfomative combat against racism, antisemitism, and hate speech, and (3) Conflict: Creator’s memetic participation in identity-driven warfare, with a focus on Palestinian resistance.