Shikshan Sanshodhan : Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Abstract: This chapter examines the pervasive phenomenon of digital humiliation faced by LGBTQ minorities within algorithmically driven social media environments. While these digital spaces have emerged as vital platforms for visibility, community building, and political advocacy, their underlying architecture—rooted in virality and amplification—often transforms entrenched social prejudice into a swift, relentless, and systemic form of digital harm. Drawing on Erving Goffman’s framework of stigma management and the Minority Stress Theory, the chapter explores the evolving dynamics of the “digital queer self,” perpetually subjected to algorithmic scrutiny and collective shaming. Two interrelated pathways of humiliation are analyzed: external victimization and internalized self-sanctioning. External forms include organized hate raids, cyberbullying, and doxing, which translate digital aggression into tangible real-world threats. Internalized humiliation manifests as self-censorship and the “pre-emptive closet,” wherein LGBTQ individuals regulate their own visibility to pre-empt online hostility, while also bearing the emotional weight of the “burden of representation.” Together, these experiences reveal how algorithmic systems intensify minority stress, producing an environment where queer identities must constantly negotiate between authenticity and safety. The chapter further highlights acts of resilience, as marginalized users cultivate digital counter-publics and networks of solidarity to resist systemic humiliation. Ultimately, it argues that protecting digital queer identity requires structural reform, emphasizing algorithmic transparency, cultural competency in moderation, robust anti-doxing frameworks, and platform accountability as essential steps toward preserving dignity and equality in the digital public sphere.