Peer- Reviewed
Publications

Policy Interventions

Public
Scholarship

Invited Talks
& Workshops

Conference
Presentations

Forthcoming 

MacDonald, Maggie. Forthcoming. “Pornography Platforms” In The Handbook of Adult Film and Media, Edited by Patrick Keilty, Peter Alilunas and Darshana Mini. Bristol, United Kingdom. Intellect Press (in press).

MacDonald, Maggie. Forthcoming. “The algorithmic moderation of sexual expression: Pornhub, payment processors, and CSAM” in Porn Studies - Special Issue: Artificial Intelligence, Pornography, and Sex Work (under review).

Journal Articles

Webber, Valerie, Maggie MacDonald, Stefanie Duguay, and Fenwick McKelvey. 2023. “Pornhub and Policy: Examining the Erasure of Pornography Workers in Canadian Platform Governance.” Canadian Journal of Communication 48, no. 2 Policy Portal: Regulation (June 1, 2023): 381–404. https://cjc.utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/cjc.2022-0044.

Karsgaard, Carrie, Maggie MacDonald, and Michael Hockenhull. 2021. “Rename and Resist Settler Colonialism: Land Acknowledgements and Twitter’s Toponymic Politics.” First Monday, January. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v26i2.11454.

Karsgaard, Carrie and MacDonald, Maggie. 2020. “Picturing the Pipeline: Mapping Settler Colonialism on Instagram”  New Media and Society, Special Issue: Understanding the Social in a Digital Age.  22.7. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1461444820912541.

McKelvey, Fenwick and MacDonald, Maggie. 2019. "Artificial Intelligence Policy Innovations at the Canadian Federal Government." Canadian Journal of Communication: Policy Portal, Towards a Canadian Digital and Data Strategy, 44.2. 43-49 https://doi.org/10.22230/cjc.2019v44n2a3509

Conference & Workshop Publications

MacDonald, Maggie. 2023. “THE ALGORITHMIC MODERATION OF SEXUAL EXPRESSION: PORNHUB, PAYMENT PROCESSORS & CSAM”. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, December 31, 2023. https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2023i0.13453.

Bainotti, Luca., Karsgaard, Carrie, Del Nero, Serena, Giacomo Flaim, Michael Hockenhull,  Maggie MacDonald, Antonio Martella, Erika Valderrama, and Gabriel Valerio. 2018. “Canadian Pipeline Politics: Mapping (visual) discourse in platform spaces.” Digital Methods Initiative 2018: Retraining the Machine: Addressing Algorithmic Bias, University of Amsterdam. August 2, 2018.

Meyenburg, Christina, Blaiotta, Emannuelle, Omena, Janna J., Maggie MacDonald, Shefali Bharati, and Stephanie de Smale. 2018. “Objectionable Queries: Searching for Porn in App Stores”. Digital Methods Initiative 2018: Retraining the Machine: Addressing Algorithmic Bias, University of Amsterdam. July 29, 2018.

Book Reviews

MacDonald, Maggie. 2021. “Review of #NSFW: Sex, Humor, and Risk in Social Media, by Susanna Paasonen, Kylie Jarrett and Ben Light”. Synoptique: An Online Journal of Film and Moving Image Studies, 9.2 Porn and Its Uses. https://www.synoptique.ca/issue-9-2 

Thesis

MacDonald, Maggie. “Desire for Data: PornHub and the Platformization of a Culture Industry.” Supervised by Dr. Fenwick McKelvey. Master of Arts, Concordia University. August 31, 2019.

Hill, Steph , Hanne Stegeman,  Valerie Webber, Zahra Stardust, Kath Albury, Carolina Are and Maggie MacDonald. 2022. “Integrating Sexual Expression into the Model Regulatory Framework for Platforms” Response to The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)'s proposed regulatory framework for online platforms. Comments from invitees and select members of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). November 30, 2022.

MacDonald, Maggie, and Valerie Webber. “Brief for the Department of Canadian Heritage - Digital Citizen Initiative.” Submission to the Department of Canadian Heritage for public consultation on proposed approach to address harmful content online. September 25, 2021. Read the Full Report here.

MacDonald, Maggie. 2018. “Automation, Precarity, and Canada’s Innovation Plan” Brief in Media, Labour Rights, and AI Innovation in Canada, a Memorandum for Action presented to The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Global Affairs Canada at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, April 18, 2018.

Age-Verification Won’t Save Kids from Harm - It Will Invade Our Privacy The Globe & Mail, April 9, 2024.

Why are Sex Workers Forced to Wear a Financial Scarlet Letter? The Walrus. September 26, 2022.

Eradicating Sexual Exploitation in Porn Should Not Be at the Expense of Sex Workers co-authored with Dr. Rebecca Sullivan & Dr. Val Webber. The Conversation, July 4, 2021.

The Double Exploitation of Deepfake Porn The Walrus. June 10, 2021.

Faking It: Deepfake Porn and Moral Panic Pause Button Issue 5: Whose User Experience? August 1, 2018 [archived]

“Platform Scopophilia: Data, Surveillance, and Pornhub Insights.” Closing Keynote for CAIS2024 the 52nd Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Information Science / l’Association Canadienne des Sciences de l’Information, June 6, 2024.

“Adult Industry Scholars Panel.” XBIZ 2024 Adult Industry Conference. Kimpton Everly Hotel, Los Angeles, CA. January 18, 2024. 

“Media Engagement for Adult Professionals.” XBIZ 2024 Adult Industry Conference. Kimpton Everly Hotel, Los Angeles, CA. January 17, 2024. 

“Graduate Scholarship Success.” Panel for the School of Graduate Studies’ Centre for Graduate Professional Development (CGPD). University of Toronto, January 4, 2024. 

“Peeping Platforms: Data, surveillance & Pornhub Insights.” Public talk for Civic Tech Toronto: HackNight Series. Myhal Centre, June 6, 2023. 

“What Does it Mean to be Critical?: A Multidisciplinary Discussion.” panel for The Learning Hub at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information. November 15, 2022 . 

“Fast Forwarding Porn: Digitization and Its Discontents” archival workshop with Dr. Patrick Keilty, Dr. Cait McKinney and Ferrin Evans. Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies. University of Toronto. July 7, 2021.

MacDonald, Maggie. 2024. “The Great Platform Purge: Boundary resource tuning on Pornhub” at Global Digital Intimacies. University of Amsterdam, NL. June 28, 2024.

MacDonald, Maggie. 2024. “Monstrous Moderation: Pornhub protocols around non-human animated content” for Playing (With) Sexy Beasts: Transgression and Monstrosity in Popular Culture at Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) conference, Boston, MA, March 16, 2024.

MacDonald, Maggie. 2023. “Prudish Payment Processors: Reputational Management and Content Moderation on Pornhub” for Pornhub and Beyond: Sexual Politics, Platforms, and Payment Processing in the Public Sphere at American Studies Association (ASA) conference. Montreal, QC. November 3, 2023. 

MacDonald, Maggie. 2023 “The Algorithmic Moderation of Sexual Expression: Pornhub, Payment Processors, and CSAM” at the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) conference. Philadelphia, USA. October 20, 2023.

MacDonald, Maggie. 2023. “Platform Perversions” at Global Digital Cultures Doctoral Workshop, University of Amsterdam, NL. July 3, 2023.

MacDonald, Maggie. 2023. “Peeping Platforms: Scopophilic surveillance on Pornhub Insights” for Domestic Defences: Contextualizing Surveillance in the Private Sphere at Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) conference, Denver, CO, April 14, 2023.

Karsgaard, Carrie, Hockenhull, Michael and MacDonald, Maggie. 2022. “Rename and Resist: Twitter’s Toponymic Politics” at Indigenous Resistance in the Digital Age, #InRes2021 digital conference, University of Naples, October 27, 2022.

MacDonald, Maggie. 2021. “Fake Bans & the Fans: Deepfakes on Pornhub” for Sex Tech and the Erotic Imaginary: Mediating Intimacies Online and Off, with L. Comella, Holt, R. and Berg, H. Society for Cinema and Media Studies SCMS 2021, March 17-21, 2021. 

Karsgaard, Carrie, Hockenhull, Michael and MacDonald, Maggie. 2020 “Rename and Resist: Twitter’s Toponymic Politics” at the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) conference, October 27 - 31, 2020. 

MacDonald, Maggie and Nieborg, David. 2020. “Payments, Performers, and Pornhub: Exploring webcam business models” at Global Digital Cultures, University of Amsterdam Center for Globalization Studies, June 17-18 2020. (Deferred - COVID-19)

Karsgaard, Carrie, Hockenhull, Michael and MacDonald, Maggie. 2020 “Mapping Toponymic Politics on Twitter in a Settler Colonial State” at Canadian Communications Association, Congress, Western University, London, Ontario June 2 - 5, 2020. (Deferred - COVID-19)

MacDonald, Maggie and Ross, Alexander. 2020. “You won’t last five minutes!”: An aspirational platform study of Nutaku.net” at Canadian Communications Association, Congress, Western University, London, Ontario June 2 - 5, 2020. (Deferred - COVID-19)

MacDonald, Maggie. “Distributed Intimacies: Changes in Cultures of Online Pornography” Panel presentation with Keilty, Patrick, Laurin, Daniel and Stadler, James at Sexuality Studies Association, Congress, University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC. June 2, 2019. 

MacDonald, Maggie. 2019. “Platforms and Pornography: A Walkthrough Approach” at Canadian Communications Association, Congress, June 3 - 6, 2019, University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC. June 3, 2019. 

MacDonald, Maggie. 2019. “Faking it: Fan Expressions and Platform Responses to Deepfakes” at Theorizing the Web, April 12-13, 2019, New York, NY. April 12, 2019.

MacDonald, Maggie. 2019. “The High Cost of Free Porn: Platformization of Pornography as a Culture Industry.” at Insidious: Communication Graduate Caucus conference, March 20-21, 2019, Carleton University, Ottawa ON. March 21, 2019.

Karsgaard, Carrie. and MacDonald, Maggie. 2019. “Mapping (Anti-)Colonial Issue Publics on Instagram” at Understanding the Social in a Digital Age: An Interdisciplinary Conference in Media, Technology, and the Social. University of East Anglia, Norwich UK. January 8, 2019.

MacDonald, Maggie. 2018. “High Stakes Deepfakes.” at Access Points \ Points d'Accès Graduate Conference, April 20-21, 2018, Concordia University, Montreal, QC. April 21, 2018.