OILab is an Amsterdam-based network of interdisciplinary scholars scrutinising political subcultures on the fringe corners of the Web. It does so by conducting empirical research based on digital methods as well as qualitative theoretical research. The results are usually papers and public appearances, but also take the form of more artistic projects. For write-ups of shorter projects, we also maintain a blog.

American Eagle's "great jeans" ad led to a media outrage cycle after conservatives on X amplified a minority of liberal posts that claimed the ad had racist undertones.

Hito Steyerl

Giggle Palooza is a Facebook page with 1.6 million followers. It was created in 2011 and is essentially just a super basic meme page for old people. There’s a ton of Garfield on this thing.

The screenshot above is what the page looked like in August 2019. As you can see, some of it is vaguely conservative, but for the most part, the memes it’s posting are a pretty harmless mix of email FWDs, bad cartoons, and old people jokes. The coffee one in the lower left is sort of funny.

Giggle Palooza’s main feed, right now, however, is awash in far-right propaganda and paranoid fascistic ramblings. Last week, Giggle Palooza appears to have briefly gone offline for sharing insurrectionist content.

glossolalia