The Potential and Limits of Spontaneous Labor Activism on Social Media: The Search for Justice among Chinese Restaurant Workers

Abstract

Recent scholarship on social media in labor activism has centered on institutions such as labor unions. What is understudied is how “unorganized” workers use social media to reclaim agency. Employing digital ethnography this study explores the use of WeChat, an all-in-one Chinese mobile application, among Chinese restaurant workers to share stories of mistreatment and deteriorating work conditions in the United States. Tracing the development of a blacklist of Chinese/Asian fusion restaurants that garnered the interest of tens of thousands of Chinese restaurant workers, this article reveals the potential and limitations of social media as a medium for labor activism.