Unintended consequences: data practice in the backstage of social media

Abstract

Through an ethnographic study of Chinese IT professionals who integrate a form of data culture into the digital platforms they design, maintain, and operate daily within one of China’s tech giants, this paper reveals numerous overlaps and interrelations between the data practices of Chinese IT professionals and the broader social implications that arise from them. The aim is to foster a more productive dialogue between the social studies of quantification and platform studies. This original research proposes the backstage as a potent methodology for inquiring into the role of Chinese IT professionals and domestic tech giants in advancing measuring systems and audit culture. This paper concludes by suggesting that such an approach can also be applied to wider studies of the paradox in quantification between its general claims and specific effects.