Resisting by being invisible: Theorising infrapolitical algorithmic actions on Douyin (Chinese TikTok)

Abstract

Users increasingly resist algorithms through subtle practices woven into everyday life. While scholarship on user resistance is growing, insufficient studies theorise such ‘invisible’ behaviours. This article develops James C. Scott’s notion of ‘infrapolitics’ to conceptualise users’ mundane tactics of resisting algorithmic power (surveillance capitalism and political censorship). Employing a video diary–interview study of Douyin users, we analyse three interrelated dimensions of infrapolitical algorithmic resistance: reflexivity (the recognition of one’s own actions as resistance based on the parallel process of developing self-understanding and awareness of algorithms), tactical immanence (using technological features for alternative purposes while still operating within platform logics) and identity-based (resisting profiling through multi-account practices and the enactment of various selves). We show that infrapolitical resistance emerges through everyday engagement with algorithms, evolving from sidestepping mismatched recommendations to subtly, reflexively and culturally situated practice that challenges the power structures embedded in algorithmic governance.