Trust in the system: an introduction to the #AoIR2019 special issue

This special issue of Information, Communication and Society reflects on the generative work presented at the 2019 annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (#AoIR2019). The conference attracted approximately 380 people from 35 countries to work through the theme, Trust in the System. Delegates analysed developments on the internet, in social media and through data management, including those grounded in Indigenous perspectives and varied communities, resiliencies and collective voices. Plenary provocations prompted discussions about our various relationships with "trust", "system" and "the", while research sites included webtoons and webnovels, fans and games, chemsex and porn, the rise of digital assistants and evolving digital practices in politics, health, education, environment and the media. Creative industries, automation and platformization figured broadly. Ethics, methods and theory ranged from science and technology studies (STS) to queer and indigenous theory to algorithmic approaches, digital ethnography, creative methods, and emergent work in bot detection across social media. The resulting articles curated for this collection are offered by emerging to established scholars, from around the world.