Slumdog romance: Facebook love and digital privacy at the margins

Scheiber, Laura ; Arora, Payal (2017) — Media, Culture & Society
Synopsis

This study frames Facebook as a central arena for social life among economically disadvantaged populations in the global South, consolidating a range of online activities into a single, dominant platform. It notes that intimate topics such as sex, romance, and love motivate the use of mobile and Internet technologies for this demographic, a pattern that mirrors what has been observed in wealthier regions. By foregrounding digital romance as a key context, the work offers a lens through which to rethink Internet governance in a setting characterized by a rapidly expanding, globally entwined digital public. The analysis therefore positions the platform not merely as a communication tool but as a pivotal site where social norms, desire, and governance intersect within a broader, evolving public sphere. The discussion also recognizes that harms like revenge porn, slut-shaming, and online romance scams are widespread and on the rise around the world. It argues that tracing how these phenomena appear in diverse digital cultures can inform the development of new Internet laws that aim to be more inclusive and culturally plural. In this sense, the article treats the cross-cultural variation of online harms as a critical input for policy design, rather than focusing solely on technical solutions or universal norms. The objective is to illuminate how governance mechanisms might adapt to a heterogeneous user base whose intimate online practices are inseparable from broader social and moral concerns. Methodologically, the article concentrates on low-income youth in two BRICS countries, Brazil and India, to examine how they articulate and negotiate ideas about digital privacy, surveillance, and trust through the framework of romance. This approach enables a more layered exploration of how sexuality, morality, and governance interact within Facebook’s broader ecosystem. The findings prompt reflection on whether the ascent of Facebook as the dominant virtual public sphere for the world’s poor enhances inclusion while potentially constraining the diversity of platforms accessible to and used by marginalized communities. In sum, the work interrogates the trade-offs between expanding access and preserving platform plurality in a global landscape where a single site increasingly shapes public return on digital life.
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