2026-09-18T23:01:44Z https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/132652 2026-03-24 col_2142_5131 col_2142_17395 com_2142_5130 com_2142_181 com_2142_8903

application/pdf en text Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2027-12-01 The student, Gabriel Malo, accepted the attached license on 2025-11-21 at 15:53. The student, Gabriel Malo, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2025-11-21 at 16:01. This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2025-11-24 at 11:33. DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #22925 on 2026-02-19 at 18:45:55 “We need to save civilization first”: examining the role of cyberlibertarian design in the disinformation culture of Reddit’s /r/The_Donald Malo, Gabriel 2025-11-24 Chan, Anita s Chan, Anita s Cole, CL Craft, Stephanie Hay, James Reddit cyberlibertarian design online communities alt-right far right eng Cyberlibertarian design principles have become an increasingly common feature of mainstream social media platforms, with Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, and other platforms employing once-experimental models of content moderation that assume a cyberlibertarian stance towards free speech. Seeking to understand the impact of this design politic upon our media landscape, this dissertation explores Reddit’s alt-right subreddit /r/The_Donald, utilizing a framework rooted in both science and technology studies and critical theories of the media. To that end, the dissertation examines the form and content of the subreddit, beginning from its inception in 2015, and culminating with the apex of its prominence in the public consciousness during 2017’s Unite the Right rally. By examining this critical site of development of the online far right within the context of the right-wing media ecosystems from which it emerged, I seek to understand the critical differences between human- and algorithmically-moderated (dis)information flows, their intersection and interaction with far-right subjects, and the impact of their design and affordances upon democratic publics in a time of informational crisis. 2025-12 Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132652 Copyright 2025 Gabriel Malo Inst of Communications Rsch Communications and Media University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Ph.D. Dissertation