Twitter and the Body Parodic: Global Acts of Re-creation and Recreation by Amanda Johnson Master of Arts Georgetown University, 2011 Bachelor of Arts Princeton University, 1996 Submitted to the Program in Science, Technology and Society in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology June 2017 2017 Amy Johnson. All Rights Reserved. The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis docum t in whole or in part in any medium now known or h eafter cre ed. Signature of Author: signature redlacted History, J[nt ropology, and Science, Technology and Society May 15, 2017 Certified by: Signature redacted_ N Graham Jones Associate Professor of Anthropology Thesis Supervisor signature reaactea Certified by: MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE Ian Condry OF TECHNOLOGY Professor of Japanese Cultural Studies JUN 2 7 '017 Thesis Committee Member LIBRARIES ARCHIVE8 Signature redacted %f Natasha SchillCertified by: P Associate Profess of Media, Culture, and Communication New York University Thesis Committee Member Certified by: Signature redacted Nancy Baym Visiting Professor of Comparative Media Studies/Writing Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research New England Thesis Committee Member Acepe b:Signature redacted Accepted by: Christine Walley Professor of Anthropology Director of Graduate Studies, History, Anthropology, and STS Accepted by: Signature redacted Jennifer S. Light Professor of Science, Technology, and Society Professor of Urban Studies and Planning Department Head, Program in Science, Technology, & Society Twitter and the Body Parodic: Global Acts of Re-creation and Recreation by Amanda Johnson Submitted to the Program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society on May 30, 2017 in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society ABSTRACT This dissertation investigates Twitter parody accounts as a form of social critique and linguistic play across English, Japanese, and Arabic-one that is collaboratively created by the users, policymakers, and architects of Twitter. Together, apart, and in different constellations with governments and news media, these actors use parody accounts to re- create and experiment with everything from law to what constitutes a person. I argue that the Twitter parody account, both as negative critique and ambiguous personification play, is an off-platform use-an unintended use of platform, site, or app that is allowed to endure, with varying degrees of official encouragement, silence, and ignorance. Drawing on ethnographic, linguistic, and legal analysis, the dissertation details the contours of this use, its adversaries and proponents among traditional structures of authority, and how the platform has ratified and deployed it globally. Chapter 1, Aspect Shift, examines how a parody account works at a linguistic level through the name and profile photo play of a classic political parody account. Chapter 2, The Account-Person, proposes that personhood on Twitter is a cyborg entity and investigates five elements the shape this account-person: number, body, position, world, and time. Turning to parody accounts' relationship with authority, chapter 3, Warranting Parody, investigates why some in positions of authority mobilize apparatuses of power against parody accounts. Not all governmental employees, however, see parody accounts as threats. Chapter 4, Tweeting Like a State, explores the development of norms around parody among a key, but often overlooked group of contemporary interpreters of representative government: governmental social media managers. Chapter 5, The Social Media Contract, argues that the history of Twitter's parody policy is the history of its still-emerging social contract, a contract shaped by user demands, the abdication of traditional authorities, and Twitter's own interests. This social contract has uneven globality-as chapter 6, Of Policyness and Global Polysemy, shows through examining Twitter's parody policy across languages. Finally, in the conclusion I bring these various strands together through the concept of usership, a member relationship entangled with citizenship yet largely asserted and negotiated with corporations rather than governments. Thesis Supervisor: Graham Jones Title: Associate Professor of Anthropology 3 4 Table of Contents Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 7 Introduction 11 Parody and Play Part 1: Parody and Person 42 Chapter 1 44 Aspect Shift Chapter 2 75 The Account-Person Part 2: Parody and Authority 141 Chapter 3 143 WarrantingParody Chapter 4 179 Tweeting Like a State Part 3: Parody and Platform 222 Chapter 5 225 The Social Media Contract Chapter 6 268 Of Policyness and Global Polysemy Conclusion 298 References 306 5 6 Acknowledgements Many thanks to all of the people who spoke with me regarding this research. Anthropology depends in large part upon goodwill and a willingness to share. This project is possible because people around the world generously shared their time and thoughts with me, whether in interviews or more casual interactions. There is not a single interview that didn't leave me marveling at the new understanding it had brought. I cannot thank you enough. I am deeply grateful, as well, to Twitter and the MIT International Science and Technology Initiative for making my 2013 internship happen, and to the many current and former employees of the Twitter Japan office, who have supported and inspired me throughout my internship and beyond. I look forward to hearing about your adventures! My thanks, too, to the talented legal teams of Harvard's Cyberlaw Clinic and the BU/MIT Technology and Cyberlaw Clinic, who not only helped me with public records requests, they also taught me a great deal about legal thinking and writing in the process. Attorney extraordinaire Andy Sellars led both teams. I haven't the words to express how grateful I am for Andy's wisdom and friendship. There is no one I'd rather have at my side when suing the CIA. Moving from a giant collection of data to a cohesive argument is difficult. It's a problem of abundance: where do you begin when you have enough material to support at least a dozen dissertations? Many thanks to my committee-Graham Jones, Nancy Baym, Ian Condry, and Natasha Schtill-for their constructive feedback and calm 7 Johnson-Twitter and the Body Parodic patience as I worked through this process. And particularly to Graham, who read each (very long) chapter draft and provided insightful, detailed suggestions throughout that have challenged me to be a better scholar. My thanks, too, to my writing group: Mary Brazelton, Joy Rankin, David Singerman, and Emily Wanderer, from whom I learned an enormous amount, and particularly to Joy and David for reading multiple drafts of arguments and consistently pushing me to make them stronger and clearer. As a highly interdisciplinary project, the analysis presented here has benefitted enormously from discussions with a number of communities. These include too many individuals to name directly (yes, I fear forgetting someone), but please know that I very much appreciate the wisdom, inspiration, and kindness you have shared with me. I'm looking at you, HASTS-MIT's Program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society and my much loved home at MIT; and you, too, Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, my home away from home and most definitely including the Global Platform Policy Working Group I ran there in 2016; and you, Oxford Internet Institute, with your wonderful summer doctoral program which in 2016 restored and reinvigorated me as an academic; and you, Keio International Center for Internet and Society, for your kindness hosting me during the Japan portion of my fieldwork; and last but not least, you as well, Institute of Comparative Law at Meiji University, with your lovely faculty who graciously shared both their knowledge and office space with me. Many thanks, too, to Karen Gardner for helping me navigate MIT as I dealt with the various unexpected obstacles life tossed at me along the way and for the gift of friendship. 8 Acknowledgements In addition to being highly interdisciplinary, this project was also highly expensive-San Francisco, Tokyo, and Dubai are some of the most expensive places to live in the world. It is not coincidental that they are also technological hubs. My fieldwork was supported by grants from the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the Japan Foundation. My writing period was supported by a Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the Mellon / American Council of Learned Societies. Many thanks to all for your belief in this ambitious project. I hope the results persuade you to fund similar wacky endeavors in the future. The process of completing a doctoral dissertation is rife with stress. You embark on a research project the scope of which is beyond anything you've previously tackled. Don't get me wrong-this is an exciting challenge, and the reason I, at least, decided to do a PhD. It's also stressful. In anthropology, the focus on lived experience, limned day by day in field notes and interviews, requires repeated acts of faith. Multisited work means that you must start anew multiple times during your fieldwork, with all of the social and life challenges that entails. The shift from fieldwork to writing comes with shocks of dislocation and readjustment. Lurking beneath these challenges lie the many dysfunctions of contemporary academia. On top, of course, pile your other life stresses, about family and health and so on. I am enormously grateful for the love and support of my friends throughout this process. You are awesome and I love you all. Special shout-outs to Kate Darling, Stuart Geiger, Malavika Jayaram, Tim Maly, Nathan Matias, Burcu Mutlu, Heloisa Ozawa, Joy Rankin, Pamela Shapiro, David Singerman, and Mel Wong for help and advice at key moments. Being there for someone can seem so small and simple.