Dear colleagues and friends, With apologies for cross-posting! Marloes Geboers and I are excited to share Volume One of our newly published special-themed collection, “Ambient Amplification: Memecry Across Platforms,” with Platforms & Society. What comes into focus when we approach memes through the affective interplay of user practices and algorithmic systems? The collection brings together ten methodological and conceptual reflections that “foreground the background” of contemporary platform cultures. We situate the contributions along a series of shifts: from high-visibility events toward surrounding adaptations and remixes; from metrics to affinity-based algorithmic approximation; from memes as content to vibe-based riffing on affective orientations; and from visibility to ambiguity resistant to quantification. Please find links to the individual articles below, with many thanks to P&S editors and all authors for bringing this collection together! Happy reading, and stay tuned for our forthcoming call for contributions to Volume Two! * Elena Pilipets & Marloes Geboers Ambient Amplification: Memecry Across Platforms<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/29768624261489026> * Susanna Paasonen Affect and memes: Ambiguity abounds<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/29768624261455192> * Stijn Peeters and Tom Willaert ‘Dark metrics’ and the mainstreaming of political extremism on Dutch-speaking Telegram: A comparative reading of platform affordances<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/29768624261421758> * Nicola Righetti and Richard Rogers Coordinated inauthentic behaviour on Facebook? A typology of manufactured attention<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/29768624251369784> * Sal Hagen, Daniël de Zeeuw, and Tommaso Venturini Digital rhythmanalysis: Studying memetic and affective rhythms on the post-viral Web<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/29768624251394967> * Marcus Bösch and Tom Divon Dancing in uniform: Thirst trap propaganda in military image wars on TikTok<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/29768624251403864> * Boris Noordenbos and Marc Tuters The counter-hegemonic hegemon: A cross-platform analysis of a Kremlin-backed strategic narrative<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/29768624251411006> * Marloes Geboers, Elena Pilipets, Idil Galip and Julia Bee Amplification, communities, platforms: Reclaiming space with Idil Galip and Julia Bee<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/29768624261455200> * Jing Zeng, Qinghao Guan, Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández, and Xiran Liu How do multi-modal large language models understand non-English visual hate? Insights from studying hate speech in Chinese-speaking communities on Instagram<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/29768624251383735> * Fraser Crichton and Guillén Torres (Re)Generating Hate <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/29768624261449726> * Elena Pilipets and Marloes Geboers Synthetic imaginaries of “sensitive” AI: On ambient amplification and jail(break)ing as method<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/29768624251378110>