Kristine Is Not Well

This interactive, animated VR simulation puts the user on the fictitious social media platform Owlet, which only permits positive comments. “No more trolls”—this sounds like a perfectly good idea, especially when you see all the cheerful posts popping up, ranging from a Chinese lesson between two reindeer to a workout led by a well-muscled dog.

Then the popular Owlet influencer Kristine (who has her own catchy pop hit) suddenly seems to have vanished from the face of the earth, after unexpectedly announcing her farewell. And the platform doesn’t appreciate any concerned comments and critical questions about her disappearance.

You keep sending new messages, joining in with the other platform members you see virtually around you. In creative ways they try to keep one step ahead of the constant machine learning by the censorship algorithm. Your greatest enemy turns out not to be trolling, but surveillance by the online platform itself. Kristine Is Not Well is based on existing practices used by activists to get around censorship, from emojis via QR codes to multilingual memes.