The Network of Alternative Social Media Researchers

HOPE and Alternative Social Media

Jamie A. Theophilos, 01 Sep 2025

Editor’s note: This is a reflection on the recent Hackers on Planet Earth conference by ASM researcher Jamie Theophilos.

Every other summer since 1994, hackers, activists, artists, and technologists descend on New York for Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE). Organized by the security hacker journal 2600, this three-day conference blends talks and workshops with performances, films, villages, art installations, and vintage computer displays. Along with Las Vegas’ Defcon, HOPE stands as one of North America’s most known hacker conferences.

As a first-year attendee, my biggest concern was entering the space and immediately feeling (for lack of a better word) like a poser. Aside from my middle school self using an anonymous AIM username, “Hack3rspy,” to anonymously send esoteric messages to my schoolmates, I’d never had much of a relationship to hacking culture growing up. It wasn’t until my mid-20s that I developed both an inquisitive appreciation (and a simultaneous nagging disdain!) for digital technology.

I quickly learned, however, that HOPE isn’t siloed just for self-described cybersecurity experts. Journalists, activists, artists, academics, media makers, radio hobbyists, lock-picking enthusiasts, and radical activists concerned with rising technofascism were all present. Combined with the friendliness of almost everyone I interacted with, my imposter syndrome was thankfully squashed. Now, over two weeks later, I’m reflecting on what a hacker conference like HOPE can offer the field of alternative social media studies.

Key Connections

The most obvious overlap with Alternative Social Media research and HOPE was Activity Pub co-author Evan Prodromou leading an introductory talk on the Fediverse as well as hosting an ActivityPub table where you could pick up stickers and literature on the Fediverse. But even without this direct presence, HOPE’s historical relevance to alternative social media is undeniable. Alternative social media such as the Fediverse’s development is predicated on hacker cultures, their values (including their divisive tensions), and the fundamental technological elements of free and open-software and decentralization.

However, what I found the most valuable at HOPE were other, less-obvious connections that would add valuable depth to alternative social media research. The various talks and tables made me think about how alternative social media research could benefit from broader conversations with the related research subjects of alternative media and alternative computing. Discussions and workshops related to free and open-source software and hardware reminded me that alternative social media platforms don’t exist in isolation; they rely on material infrastructures, from servers to personal devices. This raises questions about how the materiality of computing shapes alternative social media experiences or how communication tools used by FOSS developers might inform platform design.

At HOPE, several talks that had nothing to do with alternative social media nonetheless raised crucial questions that alternative social media researchers should be asking. Alex Muentz’s “Activism, Hactivism and the Law,” Joseph Cox’s “How Law Enforcement Agencies Compromise Entire Encrypted Chat Platforms,” and the informal Anarchist Assembly all loosely revolved around how political actors navigate platforms under surveillance and repression. These greatly informative sessions made me wonder: How do these same dynamics play out on decentralized platforms? Do activists change their behavior differently on Mastodon versus X when law enforcement is monitoring? How does the distributed nature of the Fediverse alter activists’ threat models?

Activists and hackers are just one of many other users that could be analyzed in relation to alternative social media. Laura Sang Hee Scherling and Josefina Piddo’s “Aging Cyber Safety” talk, for example, examined how elders navigate social media and internet security, addressing the real issues of technical literacy existing today. To my knowledge, no research has examined age or technological literacy in regards to alternative social media platforms, despite the fact that concepts like user-friendliness, barriers to entry, and accessibility are central to debates about the Fediverse’s mainstream adoption potential.

While none of these talks specifically addressed alternative social media, they illuminated how different user constituencies, activists, elders, law enforcement, hackers, bring distinct needs, vulnerabilities, and practices to their platform use. Taking seriously issues of user practices has the potential to be incredibly generate for for alternative social media research and what exactly makes a platform truly “alternative.”

Conference Joys

Finally, I want to highlight the value (and enjoyment) that can come from academics attending non-academic conferences! I hope that academics can continue to practice the things we teach and learn to stumble along with those who build alternative cultures and worlds – just as much as we study the infrastructures, people, and technologies that comprise them.

Conferences like HOPE offer starting places to bridge that gap between observation and participation and between theory and practice.