Meet May: The TikTok ‘Micro-Celebrity’ Behind The Cross-Platform Fight to Stop Internet Censorship
How FanFiction Fans and Creators Are at the Center of the Fight to Stop Internet Censorship.
There are corners of the internet that model the best of us. The more time I spend in my digital spaces and in conversation with other online communities, the more I deepen this awareness. And, yes, I do have my days where I despise the internet and everyone on it.
When I first met May, a young content creator who launched an effort to “Stop Internet Censorship” through the power of her fanfiction community, I was worried I’d stumbled upon a story of digital NIMBY-ism – activism spurred only by one-dimensional self-interest. What I found instead, through her work in mobilizing her queer digital communities, was a simple and potent organizing reminder: people are good, corporations are bad, and fighting for the rights of the most marginalized lifts us all up.
Before getting into it, here is some background you need to know in order to follow along:
FanFiction: “Fanfiction is fictional writing written in an amateur capacity by fans, unauthorized by, but based on an existing work of fiction.” Individual works are called “fics.”
Archive of Our Own: (often referred to as AO3) is a website that describes itself as “a fan-created, fan-run, nonprofit, noncommercial archive for transformative fanworks, like fanfiction, fanart, fan videos, and podfic.” It has 6 million users.
AO3 Cyber Attack of 2023: In early July of 2023 AO3’s website went down due to a malware attack by homophobic Russian hackers posing as an Islamist organization called “Anonymous Sudan.” They held the site ransom for $30,000. Within several days the site was back online.
Here’s the thing. AO3 is gay, like very gay. It is queer-affirming and, unlike other FanFiction websites that readily censor adult or queer fics, it has a unique approach to content moderation and censorship — It’s all user choice and it works. The results of this approach, well, lets just say it creates a lot of variety in what one could find on AO3 🫣. As the saying goes, to each their own.
AO3 is a vitally important digital space for queer FanFiction creators and consumers. And, in the context of conservative laws like the Trump era FOSTA / SESTA policies that seek to punish websites for hosting queer, trans, sexual or hedonistic content, AO3 users around the world are deeply worried about the future of the internet.
A new bipartisan internet censorship bill called KOSA (the Kids Online Safety Act), is what May and her friends see as the next great threat to the internet freedoms they cherish. Many are concerned that KOSA capitalizes on the moral panic of ‘keeping children safe’ in digital spaces in order to kick the door wide open for censorship and surveillance. Conservative groups like The Heritage Foundation have explicitly expressed their interest to use KOSA to restrict young people’s access to sexual and gender identity online.
Here’s May in her own words, only days after the AO3 cyber attack, describing the stakes of KOSA to her fellow fans. This is the viral TikTok that launched her unique mobilization effort.
@omarsbigsister anyway. this bill will probably pass this month unless people talk about it and you can say bye bye to fandom at that point. but who cares bc none of yall even see these #greenscreen #lgbtq #fandom #satosugu ♬ original sound - alpha
May’s work, now in collaboration with tech justice group Fight for the Future, is a digital community of FanFiction creators, fans, activists, lobbyists, legal advisors, and allies. They’ve built a cross-platform mobilization of intergenerational users, fighting to Stop Internet Censorship and, mainly, stop KOSA from ever getting passed.
Through WhatsApp messages and distant time zones, May generously elaborated on her experience with me.
I N T E R V I E W
PitaBreadFace: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? What has your relationship to the internet been like and what drives you to do the work that you do?
“I grew up naive, and unconnected to the world, as most queer kids in the early 2000s I guess. I always knew I was weird, an outsider...the internet is dear to me, it’s my gateway to the world. I think during 2020, this is something everyone truly realized. ”
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May: I go by “May” online. For these purposes, I'll describe myself as a random niche internet microcelebrity. It's not as glamorous as it sounds. I'm a 26 year old queer hijabi who cares too much (or just the right amount, to people I respect) about too many things. I grew up online, quite literally. My family home life was lovely, but small and conservative as I grew up in the midwest in a traditional muslim family. It was decently restrictive, but not oppressive. My parents are first gens, so most of it was based in fear. Regardless, I grew up naive, and unconnected to the world, as most queer kids in the early 2000s I guess. I always knew I was weird, an outsider. Anyway, the internet is dear to me, it's my gateway to the world. I think during 2020, this is something everyone truly realized.
The internet is truly one of my only connections to the world that's quite literally just outside my door but inaccessible to me. Everything, from news to sex to friends to just being able to feel like a human being, it's because of the internet. That is what drives me. Because it is quite literally, in many ways, the only thing I have.
I spend most of my time on Twitter and TikTok. I used to be hardcore on tumblr and a few sites here and there before they got purged due to SESTA/FOSTA (a 2018 internet censorship law). Community wise, I'm heavily into stan/fandom culture in regards to anime and a few other fandoms here and there. As for politics it’s Twitter, but I take a step back from that every now and then because I end up doom scrolling too much.
PitaBreadFace: First things first, what is KOSA?
@omarsbigsister dont let me down yall. if it passes markup, it goes to the senate floor for a full vote. august theyre not in session so that could be any day starting in september. also arent my acting skills great lol #kidsonlinesafety #kosa #stopKOSA ♬ original sound - alpha
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May: KOSA is a bipartisan (first red flag) "child safety" (second red flag) bill aimed at "protecting kids from harm online" (third red flag). There have been many, many , many articles and blogs written about it from legal scholars, tech experts, journalists, from both sides of the political spectrum who agree that it's a shitty bill. They go into detail on the specifics, but in a very very general way, when it comes to legislation about the internet, one word in a bill can mean the difference between mass censorship and surveillance and not. I like to describe KOSA as a Trojan horse. It holds websites accountable for vague definitions of "harm" and websites will respond strongly by simply removing the "harmful content" since they're very risk averse. After all, these are businesses.
PitaBreadFace: Okay got it, now what is Fanfiction? What does it mean to you?
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May: Fanfiction is a form of art. Through art, one can vent, explore one’s sexuality, explore darker thoughts safely, create worlds, create a safe space, create beauty and love, explore deep dark feelings of hatred, all while doubling as a form of escapism. That's what fanfiction is to me. Primarily, it's a form of entertainment. Secondly, it's a form of escapism. But deep down, it's another way to explore the world within me and around me.
PitaBreadFace: So how did Fanficiton and KOSA connect to drive your work?
“there are people who have seen the rise and death of the internet as we used to know it and are very very wary of any “internet” legislation because we experienced first hand what happened. ”
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May: The fanfic community has been instrumental in driving opposition to KOSA. First, you must understand, queer fandom is a VERY VERY LARGE community. It's very diverse, in age, thought, and multiple ways. There are people who've been writing fanfic longer than I've been alive. There are people who write fanfic who are younger than my own accounts. Because of this age range, because of the queerness, there are people who have seen the rise and death of the internet as we used to know it and are very very wary of any "internet" legislation because we experienced first hand what happened.
It was because of the fanfic community that we were really able to spread the word about KOSA and get the ball rolling on our large opposition.
I was connecting the dots between who wrote the bill, SESTA/FOSTA, being queer online, and fandom spaces. This got a decently big amount of attention on twitter, tumblr, and reddit until it gradually blew up and we had enough opposition to stop it the first time it was introduced. I had just enough people and reach and influence to push back on it (this took place over two years). it was reintroduced the following session, though (year three).
Then, one of our websites for fanfiction went down (due to a ddos attack) and everyone scrambled to tiktok, where I had built a decent following for a few years and had very good and consistent interaction with people. I connected the two dots (between KOSA and ao3 being down due to a homophobic ddos attack), and was talking about KOSA because there was movement on the bill at the time too. This all combined into the video going very very viral. All of a sudden thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people learned about KOSA, and that number grew to the hundreds of thousands. This continued until we had more and more "influencers'' in these queer and fandom spaces talking about it, then with more outreach it got the attention of much bigger accounts who are not in our spaces talking about it, and awareness on KOSA kept growing until it is what it is today.
PitaBreadFace: Why are your online communities and fanfic communities interested in stopping KOSA?
“Our spaces are disappearing.”
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Online communities are interested in stopping KOSA because the internet as we know it is dying for multiple reasons.
1) Our spaces are disappearing. there used to be blogs, forums, many many websites to hang out on and do things. Now, it seems there's only social media and a handful of niche sites here and there.
2) With advertising controlling lots of the income for social media, the censorship comes from them. Overseeing international advertising bodies have dictated things like sex and nudity as "harmful", and so anything related to that gets censored. It's not human moderators anymore either, but AI moderation for many sites.
3) Actual censorship/surveillance legislation is popping up across the world rapidly. FanFic is a very old community that has seen the rise and fall of many sites due to many of these problems. quora, livejournal, dreamwidth, fanfiction.net, were all sites that no longer exist. They were highly interactive; you were able to build community due to their forums & blogs in addition to their main function of holding fanfiction.
Since the community is one that is inherently creative, we've had a lot of help with things like making flyers and memes to get the word out. Sometimes, the best way to communicate rapidly is through simple memes.
I started the discord against internet censorship and over the years have had different people help organize it and set it up so that it functions pretty well. There have also been many artists who've spread this to the artist community, including furries. Once that took off in those corners, it really did help blow up even more.
I learned how to communicate through humor, images, video, flyers, and how to communicate effectively to different groups I want to target. I also learned what my strengths and weaknesses are through these formats, and that one person cannot communicate effectively in all the ways. It really helps to have younger people involved who live online, or are in specific more niche communities, because they'll show you how to reach people in ways you simply can't.
PitaBreadFace: Can you break down how the Discord itself functions?
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May: So the discord mostly works as two things. One, an information hub, but more than that, it works as a mobilization tactic.
It's mainly US-based. We do have a couple channels for non-US bills in case there are any. These internet censorship bills are popping up all over the globe. They're all related and they all have the same kind of people pushing them and the same inspiration behind all of them.
The Discord is a source of information. So we have a huge stack of resources. When any article comes out criticizing KOSA, for example, it immediately gets added into the Discord into a resources channel. If it is another internet censorship bill, it gets sectioned off into another section.
That way you can keep track of not only the article, but the journalist that wrote it, and the publication that was for. So when we're writing big letters or trying to contact influencers, we have a log of all these resources that we can link them to.
The Discord is also a mobilization tactic. So the way it works is I'll get my information from Fight for the Future because now I have connections with them and then do some thinking on when is the best time to reach people? Because again, most of these people are younger, so I want to send out a message at a time that they're active. So usually that's like after school hours. So like after 2 p .m. After 3 p .m. After 5 p .m. The message will be something like, “let's get to work. let's contact our people let's spread the news,” and then what people will do is they'll jump on their different social medias and be like, “oh my god this is gonna go for a vote blah blah blah,” and then it will gain traction and more people more and more people will talk about it more calls are sent to Congress and more organizing happens outside of the Discord.
PitaBreadFace: How do you onboard and manage people on the Discord though?
“So it’s very much a you can’t do it yourself kind of thing. It’s not impossible, but it becomes so much easier when you have a trusted mod team and people love to mod. That’s the thing, people like to mod. So it’s not hard to find a good mod you can trust.”
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May: Anybody within the discord can share it to their friends. As for onboarding we haven't had too many issues, anybody can join. It's not like there's anything nefarious going on in there and all the information is pretty much public. You do have to assign yourself rules so that you can actually have access to it and that prevents bots or spam or things like that.
We also have like several mods who are all constantly like getting pinged in cases like arguments that break out or like if anything inappropriate is said. They've been pretty solid, like really good at keeping things under control, keeping people's heads on their shoulders, and keeping the anxiety down.
There are also times where I have had to step away from the discord like right now because it gets too much for me constantly having to update it and being aware of this shitty ass bill and being aware of the censorship that could possibly come. So having the discord there and having a mod team in place who you trust is super important. There's been times where I've had to step away and my mods take over for the most part, doing announcements. You know, keeping track of everybody.
So it's very much a you can't do it yourself kind of thing. It’s not impossible, but it becomes so much easier when you have a trusted mod team and people love to mod. That's the thing, people like to mod. So it's not hard to find a good mod you can trust.
PitaBreadFace: Help a newbie out, what advice would you give to fans who are looking for a meaningful community online related to the media they love and want to explore more with others?
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May: For fans, I would say this. keep an open mind, and keep any judgements to yourself. Many, many, many creatives are beyond exhausted with their lives both irl and online, especially in this late stage capitalism world that eats you up alive. Fan communities are sometimes the only refuge.
It's easy to make friends, but be wary of those who are judgmental of people who hate on "darker" tropes/themes, because oftentimes they will turn on you too once you express your appreciation for something even remotely in those categories. Especially if it comes to shipping/sex. There is a strange, puritan wave going around that's negatively impacting fandom and relationships with creativity and art. The best way to enjoy fandom is to have a handful of friends you can trust that you can be total geeks with and hold the rest of fandom at an arm's length away, near enough but not close enough to bother you.
The best places to find fandom are tumblr, due to their amazing archive and search ability, and twitter, due to ease of access and algorithm. Just make a few posts, follow a few people, and slowly grow into the fandom. I would avoid unnecessary drama, which there is a lot of, because people love drama and again, big big spaces bring in a lot of different types of people who will argue lol.
If you want a space where you can encourage people to be activists as well, I would say to navigate those spaces with a balance. Not too much. Every fandom has its niche. Not every fandom is the same or moves the same either. So it's all a balancing act that you grow to learn to navigate the more you use it. There's space for everyone in fandoms, but again, it can be intimidating at first especially when you're so new to it. Don't police people's joy.
PitaBreadFace: Can you help an online-organizer newbie out, what advice would you give to organizers and campaigners who want to join digital communities and mobilize them towards a shared political goal?
“A BIG do is kind of also a don’t, do establish a space in fandom PRIOR to reaching out to people for activism purposes/mobilization...Some don’ts: do NOT spam. if you’re reaching out, at least make your account look like a real person is behind it. don’t be annoying...concise is key.””
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May: Here are some dos: approach with an open mind. Don't be afraid of dming people, and don't be afraid of rejection if they ignore you or don't take up an offer. It can be very hard to mobilize online communities if it's not either something huge, like Palestine, or something that will impact them, like KOSA. It's not that they don't care, it's just that there is a time and place for everyone. Overall, just keep trying.
It's better if you're in some type of fan community first hand, so that there's some form of trust there. If you can't dm, sometimes a reply with a "hey can you check this out?" helps. A great place to start would be tumblr, both because it's the most anonymous place (no one can see follow/follower counts, which do add legitimacy) and you can easily show up in tags and get attention. Tiktok is also a great place to organize, but again, you need to learn how to use the platform and how to communicate through it first. some posts will go big and others won't.
A BIG do is kind of also a don't, do establish a space in fandom PRIOR to reaching out to people for activism purposes/mobilization. Don't do it at the last minute. Have some legitimacy in the space, both as a fan and as a mobilizer. Build that trust prior to the issue you want to talk about in advance. Don't do it for mobilization purposes, do it for love of the space.
Some don'ts: do NOT spam. if you're reaching out, at least make your account look like a real person is behind it. don't be annoying, replying multiple times to multiple tweets. Do not get discouraged if your posts flop. Don't give too much information, keep it short and sweet and to the point. Concise is key. Don't overuse hashtags. Don't have a lame profile picture. If you want to reach out to creative communities, you need to at least look like you care about said community, otherwise you will look like too much of an outsider.
The best way to enter a community is to be genuine. At the end of the day, these are places to have fun. every space moves differently. The one thing people hate most is someone who isn't genuine.
PitaBreadFace: Take this question however you want, why is world-building important?
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May: World building is important because it lets you explore possibilities that can exist. It helps you navigate problems in the world in a healthy manner, especially when sometimes you're too afraid to navigate them irl.
World building is also important because it lets you explore a world you want to build. It instills in you a form of creativity and acceptance that things can change that is vital for organizers. At the end of the day, this is a question that seems kind of self explanatory to me. it's hard to describe why it's important. Simply put, it lets you explore infinite possibilities of what's possible in the world, positive, negative, or neutral. You don't have to accept the world as it is. Why should I? Where can I make reality whatever I want it to be with my words and my art?