Algorithmic Sabotage Research Group Asrg | Cross-Platform |
At the heart of ASRG’s ideology is a radical departure from conventional technology critique. The collective rejects the passive act of debunking corporate propaganda or simply calling for ethical reform. In a detailed review of the group’s work, technologist and critic Monroe Lab notes that the tech industry's critique is often "fixated on resistance to false narratives, debunking as praxis," which traps activists in a "feedback loop of call and response". The ASRG exists to break this loop by moving from discourse to direct, disruptive action.
Online, the ASRG has a presence on federated social media platforms like Mastodon (under the handle ), where they regularly share links to new tools and strategies. Their website, hosted at algorithmic-sabotage.gitlab.io/asrg/ , serves as a central hub for their manifesto, diagrams, and resources. Their work has been described by supporters as "a lot of heartbeats and neurons - human stuff - into this area," a testament to the dedication of the individuals involved.
A major challenge for independent web creators is that standard server-level tarpits require access to active backend environments. Many users deploy websites using static site generators (SSGs) like Jekyll or Hugo hosted on Codeberg or GitHub Pages, which offer no backend control.
The Rise of Algorithmic Sabotage: Inside the ASRG Framework The is an ongoing, conspiratorial, aesthetico-political, and practice-led research framework focused on the intersections of digital culture, information technology, and institutional power. Operating at the borders of avant-garde art, tactical media, and radical technical activism, the group positions its work against what it terms "necropolitical technologies"—systems that reinforce structural injustices, algorithmic authoritarianism, and unbridled technosolutionism. algorithmic sabotage research group asrg
Turning theoretical critique into active resistance (praxis) against "necropolitical" technologies—those that manage or devalue life.
The group compiles structural tactics aimed at the intentional corruption of data workflows—often referred to historically as throwing a "sabot" (wooden shoe) into the industrial looms. By feeding mislabeled, heavily distorted, or adversarial data streams into public vectors, creators force AI companies to expend heavy manual resources cleaning their data pools.
The Algorithmic Sabotage Research Group does not yet exist, but the need for it grows with every opaque model deployed in housing, justice, and healthcare. Its name is deliberately jarring: sabotage, after all, comes from the French sabot —a wooden shoe thrown into machinery to stop production. That humble act of refusal is the ancestor of all algorithmic accountability. The ASRG would take that wooden shoe and turn it into a research instrument, asking not “How fast can this machine run?” but “Who gets crushed when it does—and how do we safely make it stop?” In answering those questions, it would do nothing less than reclaim the politics of failure from the engineers of inevitability. At the heart of ASRG’s ideology is a
The Aesthetics of Resistance: Inside the Algorithmic Sabotage Research Group (ASRG)
Historically, nineteenth-century workers threw their wooden shoes ( sabots ) into weaving machinery to stop production. The ASRG translates this concept into contemporary technical workflows. In public registers and technical toolkits, such as the curated records hosted on open platforms like Sarah Garcin Ressources , the group codifies an explicit list of offensive methodologies. Methodologies of Digital Resistance
Dismantling the cultural myth that complex socio-political problems can be solved solely by optimizing software algorithms. The ASRG exists to break this loop by
: Combating the corporate narrative that social and political systemic issues can be fully resolved with computational fixes.
By sabotaging algorithms, the ASRG creates spaces of opacity. If a system cannot predict your next move, it cannot control it. This reclaiming of unpredictability is central to the group’s ethos. In a world that demands data, the ASRG champions the right to be unreadable.
A closely related cohort of artists and hackers (like those seen at DEFCON 31's AI Village ) who focus on the "creative misuse" of AI. Drop #17. Manifesto On Algorithmic Sabotage
To conduct its research, the ASRG employs a range of methodologies and tools, including:
Independent security researchers like Bastian Greshake Tzovaras have built upon ASRG concepts to design client-side, static-friendly sabotage tools. By implementing local scripts, creators can automate the following: