Affordances-in-practice and misogynistic discourse: A post-digital discourse analysis of memetic verbal aggression in Hong Kong

Abstract This article examines how digital misogynistic discourse produces real-world consequences through platform affordances in post-digital conditions. The study focuses on LIHKG, a popular online forum in Hong Kong, where users collectively target female influencers with persistent verbal abuse. Through critical discourse-centred online-offline nexus ethnography (CD-OONE), which builds on established traditions of entextualization and discursive circulation, the study shows how users creatively appropriate platform features for sustaining misogynistic language. Unlike algorithmically mediated social media, LIHKG operates largely through human agency, such as strategic upvoting/downvoting, nested quoting, custom emoji, forum slang, and serial threads. The analysis reveals how these affordances-in-practice amplify and normalize misogynistic discourse strategies on the forum. A case study traces a 5-year aggression cycle targeting one female influencer, drawing on forum threads, the influencer’s own social media posts, and mainstream news coverage to show how forum discourse produces offline reputational damage that recursively triggers additional online attacks. Theoretically, the study extends critical discourse analysis by showing how sociotechnical conditions shape scalar amplification of harmful discourse online and offline. Methodologically, it provides a practical framework for documenting, tracing, and analyzing discourse circulation and the real-world consequences of digital aggression.