Activist imaginaries of the Internet: From techno-utopian myths to digital disenchantment

This article explores the myths and the social imaginaries about the Internet, shared and conveyed by academic discourse and by activists of the new social movements that use technology intensively as the basis of their organizational strategies and collective action. Discourses, imaginaries, and myths about the Internet are investigated through a qualitative methodology based on participant observation and active interviews with activists from different social movements. Through the analysis of the stories of cyberactivists collected between 2007 and 2020, an evolution of myths and imaginaries is foregrounded, moving from a utopian and idealized cyber-libertarian rhetoric towards a growing demystification of the Internet as a dystopian space.