‘Spread kindness not virus’: theorising the vulnerability of online mutual aid communities

While rooted in altruism and solidarity, the sustainability of mutual aid communities – particularly those born in times of crisis – depends on their capacity to maintain social cohesion and ensure fair resource distribution. This study investigates how digitalisation introduces unique challenges to such communities by examining Caremunity, a Facebook-based mutual aid group formed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Through a netnographic immersion and drawing on Serres’ parasite logic, we identify three forms of interferences – consuming solidarity, negotiating vulnerability, and compromising sanctity – that simultaneously disrupt and shape the community’s efforts to uphold its founding ethos of solidarity. Our findings contribute to research on grassroots organising, online communities, and platform governance by illustrating how technology-mediated solidarity is continually negotiated and contested through these interferences.