Lodging complaints against platform power: how Lebanese journalists and activists experience reporting mechanisms, platform failures, and techno-alienation.

Since Western technology platforms began colonizing online spaces, they have neglected Majority World populations, including those in MENA/SWANA countries like Lebanon. This neglect exacerbates harassment and violence against marginalized individuals, reinforcing systemic harms in Lebanon's cisheteropatriarchal and sectarian society. Our study draws on 14 in-depth interviews with women and queer journalists and activists in Lebanon who have faced online harassment and violence. Utilizing Sarah Ahmed's feminist notion of complaint, we explore the flaws in platforms' reporting mechanisms and document what we term 'techno-alienation': a state where those marginalized by these platforms feel abandoned and unable to envision an inclusive digital future. Participants highlighted that online platforms are addressing these issues too little, too late, leading to estrangement and disengagement among users who feel left behind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]