PLATFORM MIGRATION: DIGITAL NATIONALISM AND MASS USER EXODUS REWIRE PUBLIC SPHERES

We live in an era of rapid digital migration. Around the world, users are leaving once-dominant social media platforms in search of new spaces that feel safer, more authentic, or more aligned with their values. This project examines the forces behind this shift—from algorithmic decay and privacy concerns to political polarization and digital fatigue—and how these movements are reshaping the social, political, and cultural dimensions of online life.

This study investigates digital migration across the U.S., Hong Kong, and Taiwan by integrating large-scale computational analysis, surveys of thousands of users, and fifty in-depth interviews. These interviews capture the diverse experiences of college students, journalists, tech workers, and elderly users, providing a crucial, human-centered understanding of this phenomenon. Drawing from these insights, the project develops a three-layered framework (macro, meso, and micro) that explains how political systems, institutional pressures, and everyday user practices intersect to shape modern migration patterns.

The findings promise to advance both theory and policy by documenting how these digital migrations create new forms of labor precarity, fragment public discourse, and erode the shared information environment essential for democracy. As users align with platforms reflecting their personal identities, this research addresses some of the most pressing questions in contemporary media studies: how digital mobility challenges Big Tech dominance, redefines national sovereignty online, and ultimately reshapes the future of media, regulation, and public life.