Bots and Other Platform Inhabitants: Stories of Inter-Bot Governance, Automated Play, and Protest on Reddit
Dominique Carlon · 2025
This thesis examines bots as active inhabitants in digital platforms, challenging conventional views that frame them as passive tools or external entities. Grounded in three years of digital ethnographic research on Reddit, it explores how bots negotiate norms, enforce governance, and shape platform cultures alongside human users. Thematic studies on inter-bot governance, automated play, and platform-politics showcase bots as gatekeepers, performers, and coordinators of protest, offering insight into how automated and AI-generated contributions are accepted, contested, and negotiated. The thesis identifies emerging practices and cultures of inter-bot communication, providing novel insight into relations with and between bots in digital communities.