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Platformed Survivorship; Or, Making Yourself Transparent to Be “Seen” | Items

In January 2021, actor Armie Hammer trended on Twitter after a third-party Instagram account posted private direct messages (DMs) allegedly from Hammer that detailed, among other things, cannibalistic fantasies. As media outlets picked up the story, the Instagram account continued to share DMs and texts allegedly from the actor, and ex-girlfriend Paige Lorenze spoke to Vanity Fair about his alleged abusive behaviors. As more women came forward and screenshots accumulated, the role of the DMs in the controversy remained central: They were upheld as evidence of Hammer’s abusive behaviors (or, as media outlets sometimes innacurately framed them, sexual kinks) while being simultaneously marked as potentially fraudulent and unverified because the senders’ identity cannot be proved from screenshots alone.

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Source: Platformed Survivorship; Or, Making Yourself Transparent to Be “Seen” | Items