Dannielle Deans

Epistemic inquiries about the internet have put structural features of the internet under much scrutiny, often focusing on how the internet poses an epistemic threat (Alfano, M., Fard, A.E., Carter, J.A. et al, 2020; Origgi & Ciranna, 2020; Gunn & Lynch, 2021; Ikhane 2021). For example, algorithms on search engines which automatically filter results based on user demographic data have been framed as an epistemic threat (Ikhane 2021).

Front-Arnold (2021) has argued that a pattern in literature around the internet has emerged which goes as such: an epistemological issue online is identified, a structural feature of the internet that has facilitated this issue is identified, and finally, the structural feature is deemed an epistemic threat, ignoring the epistemic agency of those deemed victims by the issue. They give the example of how echo chambers online, which have been viewed as an epistemic concern, can also be seen virtuously depending on who is exercising their epistemic agency. Marginalised communities who would otherwise be exposed to harmful ideas can create epistemically safer spaces through filtering online to create such echo chambers.

I am developing a systematic analysis of how the structural features that have facilitated a lot of the epistemically concerning issues of the internet, such as epistemic bubbles and echo chambers, can also be used in an epistemically virtuous way. I aim to fill the gap in the literature concerning enacting epistemic justice online, and what that looks like in relation to the perceived epistemic threats we face online.