What’s “critical” about critical algorithmic literacy

Abstract

The chapter defines the “critical” dimension of critical algorithmic literacy, as exemplified through a case study of the fat liberation movement on TikTok. It critiques dominant framings of literacy as a vehicle for social and industrial progress, which often render it a tool of control and assimilation. The chapter reorients the goal of algorithmic literacy around just social transformation. Drawing on critical and new literacies frameworks, the chapter conceptualizes critical dimensions as cultivating a critical consciousness and resistance. The fat liberation movement illustrates these dimensions as participants connect experiences with algorithms to broader histories of anti-fat bias and act to resist anti-fatness on the platform. This analysis demonstrates how critical algorithmic literacy supports individual agency and collective momentum toward institutional action. The chapter concludes that critical algorithmic literacy is a necessary but not sufficient condition to effect broad-scale change, given the entrenched structural power platforms continue to wield.