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What are alternative social media (ASM)? What is it that makes social media ‘alternative’ and how can one approach their study? Rather than attempting to answer these questions in order to provide a precise and stable definition of alternative social media, this paper will offer a working definition of ASM. Building on an archive of alternative social media scholarship (n=127), we problematize ‘alternative’ as an analytical category and how it has been configured thus far. Based on this work, we conclude that ASM scholarship should analyse ASM as relational, emergent, and dynamic. In addition, we argue ASM scholars must use a situated perspective. In doing so, scholars working in the field will be able to ask sharper questions both about ASM as well as mainstream social media.