Nowadays, a large part of the interaction dynamics among LGBTQIA+ people, both from the point of view of political debates, activism and circulation of knowledge, and from the point of view of the establishment of emotional and communitarian bonds, happens through the internet – more specifically, through social media. This interaction occurs through different presences on the internet ecosystem, such as: i) the use of major platforms by LGBTQIA+ people, through the creation of Facebook groups, Instagram Pages, Twitter profiles, TikTok channels, etc.; ii) the participation on platforms specifically directed to the LGBTQIA+ population.

It was in this context that, in 2020, came to Brazil the Ella Global Community platform, first established in Spain, in 2005. Its goal is to create online and offline spaces for queer women and non-binary people in order to straighten local and global community bonds, to engage the political debate and to enable the creation of friendship and emotional bonds. Today, Ella is divided on Instagram pages, a website and a beta version of an app – all of them with Portuguese versions targeting the Brazilian public.

If, on the one hand, these online spaces enable the debate, the exchange of ideas, the mutual support and the expression of sexual and gender diversity; on the other hand, the online presence also brings new concerns, such as the security level of those spaces, the treatment of data from politically marginalized populations, the way in which relations and interactions happen on the internet and how the platform design is related to the particularities of the LGBTQIA+ population.

Considering these concerns, InternetLab and Lux Ferreira (PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of São Paulo and trans-activist) have started a research project focusing on sociability, intimacy and security on virtual environments among LBT women and non-binary people. The project will carry out a study about Ella Global Community platform.

“The development of this research is especially interesting when we consider that Ella intends to establish a global network of LBT women and non-binary people. Ella’s initiative enables the understanding of the demands, dynamics and potentialities of the community and of the Brazilian context, in comparison to other countries. It also enables us to take into account the promises, asymmetries and difficulties involved in the configuration of transnational projects and networks”, Lux Ferreira affirms.

Methodology

The research was conceived by considering the existence of a gap on the literature related to social media, apps, LBT women and non-binary people – a considerable one, when compared to the extensive academic production dedicated to understanding the uses of such technologies by gay and bisexual men. Its main intention is to map the processes and mechanisms of interaction, the relations and the engagement between platform users, as well as the limits and possibilities presented by the platform.

In order to do so, the netnography methodology will be applied (an ethnography focusing on experiences and interactions on the internet) on the Ella Global Community website, on Ella’s Instagram pages and on Ella’s app. The ethnography will be combined with the study of documents such as terms of use, legal sayings, guidelines for communities, groups and events, privacy and cookie policies, among other documents referring to the app, aiming mainly at evaluating the security and data protection offered by the platform and its content moderation dynamics.

With this project, we intend to contribute to the academic debate about the sociability of LBT women and non-binary people on the internet, to fill certain gaps and to recommend better practices in what concerns the offer of safe online environments to queer women and non-binary people, in a dialogue with activists, specialists and content producers.