Although academic free speech is an ideal in Higher Education, it is seldom realised in practice. External funders and powerful academic orthodoxies are often successful in stifling novel research that challenges the commercial status quo. This has been particularly evident in the Health Sciences, where research into promising low-cost solutions, such as low carbohydrate, healthy fat (LCHF) diets, remains poorly funded. The few science experts brave enough to study LCHF must negotiate scientific suppression, whereby authorities misrepresent The Science™ as settled, whilst actively stifling dissent. The first AFSDV theme raises awareness around this neglected concern.

In response to formal suppression, LCHF scholars are using popular social media platforms to successfully promote their research and motivate for policy change. The second AFSDV theme supports the study of scholars’ digital voices, both in promoting dissent, and also in negotiating suppression.  Research into academic cyberbullying is backed by a third theme, which has supported the definition of negative phenomena, like what online academic bullying (OAB) is, and what makes up an academic cyber mob. Mixed-methods and qualitative researchers are supported via a fourth theme that assists them with extracting social media data for analysis in their postgraduate studies, thereby broadening the field.