THE DIGITAL CLOSET: HOW THE INTERNET BECAME STRAIGHT
What is it?
An exploration of how heteronormative bias is deeply embedded in the Internet, hidden in algorithms, keywords, content moderation, and more.
An exploration of how heteronormative bias is deeply embedded in the Internet, hidden in algorithms, keywords, content moderation, and more.
Who is it for?
Everyone.
Everyone.
What can it do?
In The Digital Closet, Alexander Monea argues provocatively that the Internet became straight by suppressing everything that is not, forcing LGBTQ+ content into increasingly narrow channels - rendering it invisible through opaque algorithms, automated and human content moderation, warped keywords, and other strategies of digital overreach. Monea explains how the United States' thirty-year ‘war on porn’ has brought about the over-regulation of sexual content, which, in turn, has resulted in the censorship of much nonpornographic content—including material on sex education and LGBTQ+ activism. In this wide-ranging, enlightening account, Monea examines the cultural, technological, and political conditions that put LGBTQ content into the closet.
In The Digital Closet, Alexander Monea argues provocatively that the Internet became straight by suppressing everything that is not, forcing LGBTQ+ content into increasingly narrow channels - rendering it invisible through opaque algorithms, automated and human content moderation, warped keywords, and other strategies of digital overreach. Monea explains how the United States' thirty-year ‘war on porn’ has brought about the over-regulation of sexual content, which, in turn, has resulted in the censorship of much nonpornographic content—including material on sex education and LGBTQ+ activism. In this wide-ranging, enlightening account, Monea examines the cultural, technological, and political conditions that put LGBTQ content into the closet.
Monea, A. (2022). The digital closet: How the internet became straight. MIT Press.