{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,4]],"date-time":"2026-02-04T18:19:57Z","timestamp":1770229197847,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,1]],"date-time":"2023-07-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1688169600000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Big Data &amp; Society"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2023,7]]},"abstract":"<jats:p> On Douyin, China's domestic version of TikTok, straight users are being recommended queer content, and videos created by straight men are being recommended to queer viewers. As Douyin recommends videos based on users\u2019 online activities (e.g., liking, sharing, or spending time watching a video) and networks (e.g., connections made on the platform), sexuality comes to be algorithmically interpreted and defined. This process differs from an understanding of gender and sexuality as more or less fixed classifications that are the result of what people register when entering a platform concerning their gender and sexual identifications. This article analyzes viewers\u2019 and creators\u2019 experiences and reflections on the algorithmic grouping of sexual orientation and erotic curiosity through the relational lens of configurations. Using two years of online observational data and in-depth interviews with 18 Douyin users, both straight and same-sex orientated, we found that a language-centered, semiotic approach alone cannot assist in capturing the reconfiguration of sexual identifications presently occurring in China, and most likely elsewhere. Sexual identifications are the result of a relational process in which desires (regardless of sexual orientation) and intimacy, content creation and consumption, platform vernaculars and affordances, and data and algorithms converge and clash. This process allows for an erotic curiosity that has not yet been named or normalized in language systems and therefore reconfigures how sexual identity or orientation come to be understood in relation to the ever-increasing presence of computational power. <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/20539517231215358","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,22]],"date-time":"2023-12-22T01:16:00Z","timestamp":1703207760000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["\u201cBig data see through you\u201d: Sexual identifications in an age of algorithmic recommendation"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9691-3976","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Shuaishuai","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5207-711X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rachel","family":"Spronk","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Anthropology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4324\/9780203111291"},{"key":"bibr2-20539517231215358","volume-title":"Queer Comrades: Gay Identity and Tongzhi Activism in Postsocialist China","author":"Bao H","year":"2018"},{"key":"bibr3-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4324\/9780429340376"},{"key":"bibr4-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7551\/mitpress\/14234.001.0001"},{"key":"bibr5-20539517231215358","volume-title":"Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of \u201cSex.\u201d","author":"Butler J"},{"key":"bibr6-20539517231215358","volume-title":"Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity","author":"Butler J"},{"key":"bibr7-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/00918369.2022.2040926"},{"key":"bibr8-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.18574\/nyu\/9781479888702.001.0001"},{"key":"bibr9-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s11186-020-09411-3"},{"key":"bibr10-20539517231215358","unstructured":"Collins M (2020) Traditional Chinese medicine: A cure for China\u2019s soft power woes? Available at: https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/blog\/traditional-chinese-medicine-cure-chinas-soft-power-woes (accessed 10 July 2023)."},{"key":"bibr11-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1527476418796632"},{"key":"bibr12-20539517231215358","volume-title":"A\u2013Z of Digital Research Methods","author":"Dawson C","year":"2020"},{"key":"bibr13-20539517231215358","first-page":"266","volume-title":"Culture, Society and Sexuality: A Reader","author":"d\u2019Emilio J","year":"2007"},{"key":"bibr14-20539517231215358","volume-title":"Queer Women in Urban China: An Ethnography","author":"Engebretsen EL","year":"2014"},{"key":"bibr15-20539517231215358","volume-title":"The History of Sexuality: An Introduction","author":"Foucault M","year":"1978"},{"key":"bibr16-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1515\/9781400880553-004"},{"key":"bibr17-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/esr\/jcq014"},{"key":"bibr18-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4324\/9781315270142"},{"key":"bibr19-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/13691058.2017.1317831"},{"key":"bibr20-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4324\/9781315705835"},{"key":"bibr21-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/1369118X.2016.1154087"},{"key":"bibr22-20539517231215358","volume-title":"Chinese Male Homosexualities: Memba, Tongzhi and Golden Boy","author":"Kong TSK","year":"2011"},{"key":"bibr23-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444820912535"},{"key":"bibr24-20539517231215358","volume-title":"A Passion for Difference: Essays in Anthropology and Gender","author":"Moore HL","year":"1994"},{"key":"bibr25-20539517231215358","first-page":"1","volume-title":"Understanding Global Sexualities","author":"Moore HL","year":"2012"},{"key":"bibr26-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.18574\/nyu\/9781479833641.001.0001"},{"key":"bibr27-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0001972021000280"},{"key":"bibr28-20539517231215358","volume-title":"Desiring China: Experiments in Neoliberalism, Sexuality, and the Public Culture","author":"Rofel L","year":"2007"},{"key":"bibr29-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/2053951720933286"},{"key":"bibr30-20539517231215358","first-page":"143","volume-title":"Culture, Society and Sexuality: A Reader","author":"Rubin GS","year":"2007"},{"key":"bibr31-20539517231215358","volume-title":"Gaming at the edge: Sexuality and gender at the margins of gamer culture","author":"Shaw A","year":"2014"},{"key":"bibr32-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3432951"},{"key":"bibr33-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444820904362"},{"key":"bibr34-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0001972021000231"},{"key":"bibr35-20539517231215358","volume-title":"Platform Capitalism","author":"Srnicek N","year":"2017"},{"key":"bibr36-20539517231215358","first-page":"48","volume-title":"Inventive Methods: The Happening of the Social","author":"Suchman L","year":"2012"},{"key":"bibr37-20539517231215358","first-page":"9","volume-title":"Platforming Equality: Policy Challenges for the Digital Economy","author":"Van Doorn N","year":"2020"},{"key":"bibr38-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1363460719872724"},{"key":"bibr39-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4135\/9781529783193.n17"},{"key":"bibr40-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0920203X221147481"},{"key":"bibr41-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/09589236.2021.1929094"},{"key":"bibr42-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4324\/9780203407462"},{"key":"bibr43-20539517231215358","first-page":"119","volume-title":"Female Desires Same-Sex Relations and Transgender Practices across Cultures","author":"Wekker G","year":"1999"},{"key":"bibr44-20539517231215358","volume-title":"The Politics of Passion: Women\u2019s Sexual Culture in the Afro-Surinamese Diaspora","author":"Wekker G","year":"2006"},{"key":"bibr45-20539517231215358","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/1369118X.2016.1200645"},{"key":"bibr46-20539517231215358","volume-title":"The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power","author":"Zuboff S","year":"2019"}],"container-title":["Big Data &amp; Society"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"http:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/20539517231215358","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"http:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1177\/20539517231215358","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"http:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/20539517231215358","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,1]],"date-time":"2025-03-01T14:07:08Z","timestamp":1740838028000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/20539517231215358"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,7]]},"references-count":46,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2023,7]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1177\/20539517231215358"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/20539517231215358","relation":{},"ISSN":["2053-9517","2053-9517"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2053-9517","type":"print"},{"value":"2053-9517","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,7]]},"article-number":"20539517231215358"}}