Private social media accounts as a productive resistance tactic: a qualitative study from China

Algorithmic governance and user resistance against it are receiving increased scholarly attention. There has been limited research into how private accounts function as everyday responses to platform power. This study focuses on Chinese social media users, investigating how they deploy private accounts as tools of productive resistance. Based on 28 semi-structured interviews, a thematic analysis identified four dimensions of private account practices: private space and relational autonomy, authentic expression beyond performance, privacy and information security, and metric detachment and strategic sociality. These themes reveal how users renegotiate control and meaning under structural constraints. By using private accounts as an analytical entry point, this study contributes to theories of algorithmic resistance and productive resistance, and highlights the potential for micro-level agency to emerge within platform-imposed structural limitations.