Links to media articles and posts that refer to the OTW or its projects, or include interviews/contributions from OTW volunteers. For historical media mentions, see the Press Room 2007-2019 page.
OTW representatives are available to discuss and offer comments on: transformative fan works, fandom and the multiplicities of fan culture; open source scholarship; copyright issues and fan creative rights. We can also put you in touch with fans and fanwork creators who are willing to speak to the media.
If you have questions, please contact Communications. We also have graphics and information sheets available for media use.
Media Mentions
2026
No, Wattpad isn’t banning ‘smut.’ Yes, fan fiction lovers are still freaking out.
Angela Yang. NBC News August 19, 2026
CDT Leads Coalition Opposing the NO FAKES Act.
Becca Branum. Center for Democracy & Technology June 16, 2026
To the sausage machine! With OTW volunteers Elin and Brian.
Emily and Vee. MindtheTags June 10, 2026
How fan fiction went mainstream.
Danielle Hewitt and Noel King. Vox April 11, 2026
Fandom culture: Why there are millions of clicks on AO3.
Ren Chaffee. The Miami Student April 6, 2026
The evolving role of fan fiction and independent publishing.
Sarah Chaudhry. The Statesman April 5, 2026
AO3 is out of beta after 17 years – here’s what it means for fans.
Muskan Singh. The Economic Times April 4, 2026
Fanfiction platform AO3 officially leaves beta phase after 17 years.
Mudit Dube. NewsBytes April 3, 2026
The most popular fanfiction platform exits beta after 17 years.
Dmytro Dzhuhalyk. Mezha April 3, 2026
AO3 exits Beta after 17 years: What it means for fanfiction fans.
Geo News Digital Desk. Geo News April 3, 2026
Fan fiction website AO3 is finally coming out of beta.
Mariella Moon. Engadget April 3, 2026
AO3 is finally out of beta after 17 years.
Emma Roth. The Verge April 2, 2026
Queerbaiting, delusion and the appeal of make-believe.
Olga Ilici. Trinity News April 1, 2026
Ep. 17 – For the Fans, By the Fans: Inside AO3 (A Fandom Chat with Elin from OTW).
Timothy and Taylorean. Rated T&T Podcast March 20, 2026
Not all coverage is good coverage: When media threatens fandom.
Reagan Keller. The Michigan Daily March 18, 2026
AO3 targeted by wave of spam and scam comments.
Magda P. FANMADE March 9, 2026
Do Normies Have a Right to Read Heated Rivalry Fanfic?
Katherine Dee. GQ March 5, 2026
“Girls when ao3 is down”: Days-long Archive of Our Own outage sent readers spiralling into meme mode.
Anna Good. The Daily Dot March 3, 2026
Breaking the Fourth Wall.
Alyssa Morris. Romancing the Phone, Substack February 27, 2026
Fandom’s lighthouse in a sea of censorship.
Sheridan Macy. Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression February 17, 2026
Only True Fanfiction Addicts Will Be Able To Decode These 15 Obscure AO3 Tags.
Aaron Hirsch. BuzzFeed February 11, 2026
What Is RPF and How Do I Write and Read It Ethically?.
Kat Tenbarge. Teen Vogue February 6, 2026
Fanfiction’s Total Cultural Victory.
Eli Cugini. Defector February 2, 2026
2025
AO3 parent company weighs in on major Supreme Court copyright case.
Magda P. FANMADE November 29, 2025
The Legal Advocacy Behind Fan Fiction’s Biggest Site.
Theresa Schliep. Law360 October 8, 2025
How fanfiction took over the world (and stayed free).
Bec Cushway and Rae Johnston. Download This Show (ABC Radio National) September 19, 2025
Fanfiction Authors Say AI Comments Undermine Vital Reader–Writer Connections.
Kristen Shen. Columbia Journalism School September 12, 2025
‘The Year of Dramione’: Fan fiction’s leap to bookstore shelves.
Jessica Inman. United Press International August 18, 2025
Carlos Alcaraz, Emma Raducanu and a world of shipping.
Aishwarya Kumar. ESPN August 18, 2025
Want More Love Island? Read the Fanfic.
Anna Moeslein. Glamour July 16, 2025
CDT Leads Civil Society Letter Opposing the NO FAKES Act.
Becca Branum, Kate Ruane, George Slover. Center for Democracy & Technology July 8, 2025
Sameness entices, but novelty enchants in fanfiction online.
Elise Jing, Simon DeDeo, Devin Robert Wright & Yong-Yeol Ahn. Nature July 5, 2025
Fanfiction writers battle AI, one scrape at a time.
Decca Muldowney. The Verge June 23, 2025
Fan-created media is valid.
Matthew Jegers. The Minnesota Daily June 10, 2025
Wikipedia, Others Blast Utah Curbs On Social Media.
Wendy Davis. MediaPost June 3, 2025
Valnet Inc. Clinches Significant Win in Embedding Case After Supreme Court’s Denial to Hear Appeal.
Valnet Inc. Business Wire April 29, 2025
‘I’m Passive yet devoted’: reconstructing fan identity and hierarchy in the transcultural landscape.
Shiyu Sharon Zheng. Nature April 7, 2025
AO3 is entering a new era.
Allegra Rosenberg. Polygon March 10, 2025
2024
How Luigi Mangione Captivated the Internet
Ashley Wong and Erin Mulvaney. The Wall Street Journal December 14, 2024
What do Star Wars, Twilight and Harry Styles have in common?
Jennifer Dorozio. Cost of Living (CBC Radio) November 16, 2024
How Organization for Transformative Works uses Buttondown
Asharee Peters. Buttondown November 11, 2024
Fanfiction (Don’t Judge).
Stephanie Billman and Eric Molinsky. Imaginary Worlds November 10, 2024
How the AI revolution will reshape the ways we create, work and play.
Matt Carmichael. What The Future June 13, 2024
Flair for Fanfiction: Students See Their Work as an Art Form.
Mao Reynolds. The Loyola Phoenix March 27, 2024
Project Galileo Case Study: Organization for Transformative Works.
Cloudflare March 2024
Lots of People Make Money on Fanfic. Just Not the Authors.
Elizabeth Minkel. Wired February 28, 2024
Harry Potter online fanfiction lovers might not be too happy to see Manacled become a book.
Leora Hadas. The Conversation February 16, 2024
Embracing Y/N: The merits of fanfiction and fan culture.
Grace Kim. The Student Life February 15, 2024
An early version of Mickey Mouse is now in the public domain.
Samantha Delouya. CNN January 2, 2024
Interested in fan fiction? Here’s what you need to know to start.
Bebe Hodges. USA Today January 2, 2024
2023
The Yuletide Fanfiction Exchange Is a Holiday Marvel.
Elizabeth Minkel. Atlas Obscura December 19, 2023
The Sanctity of 2 AM Fic Time.
Syd González. Anthropology News November/December 2023
I love Reylo fanfiction — and so does publishing.
Belen Edwards. Mashable November 24, 2023
Let the community work it out: Throwback to early internet days could fix social media’s crisis of legitimacy.
Ethan Zuckerman. Chand Rajendra-Nicolucci. The Conversation October 24, 2023
Fearing AI, fanfiction writers lock their accounts.
Morgan Sung. TechCrunch October 11, 2023
How fanfiction complicates rules about ownership, social norms.
Kira Deshler. Daily Dot October 8, 2023
From Friends to Lovers: The Fanfic-to-Romance Pipeline Goes Mainstream.
Elizabeth Held. Vulture August 29, 2023
Episode 254: Fanfiction and OTW.
Syosset Public Library. Turn The Page Podcast July 13, 2023
The massive fanfic archive AO3 is back after a wave of DDoS attacks.
Jess Weatherbed. The Verge July 10, 2023
Dr. Francesca Coppa on Fanfiction.
Sydney Allen and Emma Kiesling. UCL: Uncovering Publishing June 2, 2023
Utah’s online porn law puts teens’ digital rights at risk.
Rebekah Robinson. Coda Story May 23, 2023
The Fanfic Sex Trope That Caught a Plundering AI Red-Handed.
Rose Eveleth. Wired May 15, 2023
Can AI actually write good fanfiction?
Jay Castello. Polygon May 11, 2023
The Andy Warhol Copyright Case That Could Transform Generative AI.
Madeline Ashby. Wired April 25, 2023
Someone keeps accusing fanfiction authors of writing their fic with AI, and nobody knows why.
Adi Robertson. The Verge April 8, 2023
Applying Intellectual Property Law to AI: An Interview with Betsy Rosenblatt.
Katherine Klosek. ARL Views February 23, 2023
An AO3 Algorithm Would be Horrible, Actually.
Kelly Martinez. Wired February 17, 2023
Darth Vader, the problematic fanzine fave of 1977.
Jay Castello. Polygon February 12, 2023
What Web3 Can Learn From Archive of Our Own.
Elizabeth Minkel. Wired February 11, 2023
Explore and Transform: A Look into the World of Fanfiction.
Vikki Xu. 34th Street January 29, 2023
Prüfstelle muss Indizierung von Fan-Fiction-Portal zurücknehmen.
Ingo Dachwitz. Netzpolitik.org January 12, 2023
2022
Fanfiction Enthusiasts Are Digitally Preserving Decades Worth of Zines.
Claire Woodcock. Motherboard December 13, 2022.
The amateurs rewriting Hollywood’s script – and turning ‘fanfiction’ into gold.
Jake Kerridge. The Telegraph December 4, 2022.
Please Stop Begging A03 To Implement An Algorithm
Aisling O’Connor. Paste Magazine November 23, 2022.
The Race to Save Fanfiction History Before It’s Lost Forever
Jay Castello. Slate November 14, 2022.
People Say They’re Leaving Twitter: Are They Really?
Kaitlyn Tiffany. The Atlantic November 2, 2022.
Is It Time to Rethink the Rules of Fanfiction?
AJ McDougall. The Daily Beast October 23, 2022.
The Plight of the Former Fanfiction Author.
Casey Fiesler. Slate August 27, 2022.
Archive of Our Own’s 15-year journey from blog post to fanfiction powerhouse.
Jay Castello. The Verge August 15, 2022.
The Netflix v. ‘Unofficial Bridgerton Musical’ lawsuit, explained.
Deanna Schwartz. NPR August 4, 2022.
Netflix’s lawsuit against the ‘Bridgerton Musical’ could change online fandom.
Amanda Silberling. Tech Crunch August 2, 2022.
Fandom Relics and the Enthusiastic Past.
Allegra Rosenberg. Long Now July 18, 2022.
AO3: El que passa quan les fans prenen el control
Maria Domínguez Trijueque. Diari de Barcelona April 6, 2022.
Episode 64: Claudia Rebaza from the Organization for Transformative Works
Emily Einolander. Hybrid Pod Scout March 30, 2022.
What happens when you take fandoms into the wide world of open source?
Abbey Charles. Gun.io Blog March 3, 2022.
Meaning of AO3 Tags Explained as TikTokers Highlight Its Importance.
Chaitra Krishnamurthy. HITC January 27, 2022.
Fan fiction has been around longer than you think.
Alice Bell. The Big Smoke January 16, 2022.
How a 557,000-word, ‘woke’ Harry Potter fanfic took on JK Rowling.
Harriet Marsden. The Telegraph January 1, 2022.
2021
A Brief History of AO3, the Internet’s Award-Winning Fanfic Archive.
Marinel Mamac. A Little Bit Human December 28, 2021.
The Platform Weirdness Of The Succession Fandom.
Betsy Ladyzhets. Garbage Day Newsletter November 26, 2021.
The Perilous Business of Fanfiction.
Liza Bautista. Inverse October 27, 2021.
Inside Realms of Ruin, YA novelists’ failed NFT project.
Amanda Silberling. TechCrunch October 26, 2021.
How Fanfiction Can Inspire a Meaningful Cultural Activism and Challenge Social Stigmas.
Milena Popova. LitHub October 6, 2021.
Literary Fanfic.
Anthony Domestico. Commonweal October 5, 2021.
The Kirk/Spock Fanfiction Archive: How Open Doors Is Preserving Cultural History.
Elizabeth Carlie. SciFi Radio September 29, 2021.
The race to save Kirk and Spock’s fanfiction legacy.
Jay Castello. Polygon September 23, 2021.
The Art of Vidding.
Marian Caballo. The Science Survey June 14, 2021.
Fandom Flames: Ageism in fandom, or the youths need to stop.
Ruth Johnson. Comics Beat May 21, 2021.
Gift Logic: Labors of love flourish online under fandom’s social norms.
Casey Fiesler. The Knight Institute May 10, 2021.
Copyright Waffle – Episode 17 Caroline Ball.
Chris Morrison and Jane Secker. Copyright Waffle May 1, 2021.
The Era of Fanfiction.net and Wattpad Is Over — Long Live Archive of Our Own.
Karen Lu. Study Breaks April 30, 2021.
Living the Dream SMP.
Julia Alexander. The Verge March 19, 2021.
Making Fanfiction Beautiful Enough for a Bookshelf.
Julia Alexander. The Verge March 9, 2021.
Section 230: what changing it means for the internet.
Sharon Ross. Report Door February 26, 2021.
Fanfic Writer Put Entirety of ‘1984’ in the Tags of a Story.
Gita Jackson. Motherboard February 26, 2021.
Obi Wan living in Saltcoats? Fanfiction shines in spotlight.
Andrew Learmonth. The National February 14, 2021.
Why Fanfiction Does Romance Better Than Hollywood.
Shelly Jay. Nerdist February 12, 2021.
If you think fan culture is leading us into artistic poverty, you don’t know fan culture.
Lis Coburn. Blood Knife February 8, 2021.
Claims Tribunal, Music Rates Headline 2021 Copyright Issues.
Kyle Jahner. Bloomberg News January 11, 2021.
People Are Reading So Much Fanfiction It’s Crashing the Biggest Fanfic Website.
Gita Jackson. Motherboard January 8, 2021.
Twist in the tale: Pandemic-era fan fiction is a rather wild ride.
Paramita Ghosh. Hindustan Times January 8, 2021.
2020
Online writing communities emerge as a space of solace during the pandemic.
Avantika Bhuyan. Mint Lounge India December 11, 2020.
Chinese Fanfiction is Entering Into (and Upsetting) the Mainstream.
Gladys Mac. RADII December 10, 2020.
Episode Eighteen: Thankfulness.
betheflame. Pod on the Suit November 22, 2020.
Episode #007: We Need To Talk About J.K Rowling: An Interview with Heidi Tandy.
Maggie and V. Arrow. I Met You On LJ October 13, 2020.
Dream Boy And The Poison Fans.
Emily Feng. Rough Translation – NPR September 16, 2020.
The Record Industry Is Going After Parody Songs Written By an Algorithm.
Kevin Truong. VICE July 22, 2020.
The Missing Stakeholder of DMCA 512: Non-Infringing Users.
Casey Fiesler and Corian Zacher. Author’s Alliance June 30, 2020.
Copyright Office Begins Period of Petitioning for Exemptions to Section 1201 of the DMCA .
Steve Brachmann. IP Watchdog June 29, 2020.
Conversations with OTW/Ao3.
Hillary Hencely. Silenced: Discussing Censorship in Fandom June 27, 2020.
On K-Pop Fans, Political Activism, and the Necessity of Nuance.
P. Claire Dodson. Teen Vogue June 24, 2020.
A Frontend of Our Own.
Elizabeth Minkel. Increment Magazine May 27, 2020.
A Feud in Wolf-Kink Erotica Raises a Deep Legal Question.
Alexandra Alter. New York Times May 23, 2020.
Where Harry Dates Hermione.
Bhavya Dore. Open May 22, 2020.
Online platforms want IP owners to talk and beware of bots.
Rani Mehta. Managing IP May 15, 2020.
Iron Man or Black Widow vs. the Coronavirus? Discuss.
James Hookway. Wall Street Journal May 10, 2020.
Chinese actor Xiao Zhan’s apology video goes viral following AO3 controversy.
Gong Qian. Global Times May 7, 2020.
Actor Xiao Zhan Finally Apologizes for Accidentally Getting Fanfiction Site AO3 Blocked.
Adan Kohnhorst. RADII May 6, 2020.
For a lot of book lovers, rereading old favorites is the only reading they can manage at the moment.
Sarah Wendell. The Washington Post May 2, 2020.
N.K. Jemisin Reminds Us of the First Rule of Fanfiction.
Kaila Hale-Stern. The Mary Sue April 23, 2020.
In A Lonely Lockdown, With Books Slow To Come, Fanfiction Booms.
Deniz Çam. Forbes April 21, 2020.
同人圈”那些事：我们和写手、剪刀手、AO3志愿者聊了聊.
Wu Diedie, He Runxuan. 毒眸 April 10, 2020.
刷暴”肖战 超话时代的“乌合之战.
Sun Pengfei. IT Times April 2, 2020.
Meet the trans man who collected fan art of Kirk and Spock in love.
Kat Jercich. Xtra March 31, 2020.
Actor embroiled in an online fan fiction row.
Tan Weiyun. Shine March 27, 2020.
SHUT IN THEATER: Fanwork creators respond to being in lock down.
Ruth Johnson. ComicsBeat March 23, 2020.
Exclusive interview with Henry Jenkins: Where are the rights and boundaries of fans?
Chen Lu. Sanlian Lifeweek March 20, 2020.
耽美同人——女性幻想和欲望的栖息之地.
Edan, Yukitake. Guokr March 19, 2020.
We Forgot About the Most Important Job on the Internet.
Annalee Newitz. New York Times March 13, 2020.
Xiao Zhan and AO3 Fans Clash, Sparking Social Media Firestorm.
Sunny Jiang. Pandaily March 10, 2020.
AO3被举报10天后：捐款激增但同人创作尴尬仍在.
何畅. 新浪科技 March 9, 2020.
肖战粉丝引发争议后，同人创作何时能正名？
Chen Lu. Sanlian Lifeweek March 5, 2020.
AO3 事件：举报之后……谁赢了这场斗争？
邢梦妮 侯珺 彭惠钰. YiMagazine March 5, 2020.
Fan-Fiction Site Blocked in China After Celeb’s Stans Complain.
Cai Xuejiao. Sixth Tone March 3, 2020.
Xiao Zhan fans “cause trouble”; business endorsements have not been affected.
Liu Shuangshuang. Caixin March 3, 2020.
Archive of Our Own, one of the internet’s biggest fanfiction sites, blocked in China amid new censorship rules.
Iris Deng. South China Morning Post March 3, 2020.
A03 Fanfiction Drama Sparks High-Stakes War of Boys’ Love Fandom.
Elsbeth Van Paridon. Radii March 2, 2020.
China cracks down on ‘sexual innuendo’ and ‘celebrity gossip’ in new censorship rules.
Lily Kuo. The Guardian March 2, 2020.
China has censored the Archive of Our Own, one of the internet’s largest fanfiction websites.
Aja Romano. Vox March 1, 2020.
Fans should be more tolerant of fan works featuring boys’ love.
Wu Yu. Global Times China March 1, 2020.
How to Murder Harry Potter.
Kaitlyn Tiffany. The Atlantic February 19, 2020.
Fan Fiction Was Just as Sexual in the 1700s as It Is Today.
Shannon Chamberlain. The Atlantic February 14, 2020.
Copyright could be the next way for Congress to take on Big Tech.
Adi Robertson. The Verge February 13, 2020.
Senate IP Subcommittee Kicks Off Year-Long Review of Digital Millennium Copyright Act .
Eileen McDermott. IP Watchdog February 13, 2020.
Reevaluating the DMCA 22 Years Later: Let’s Think of the Users.
Katharine Trendacosta. EFF Deep Links February 12, 2020.
Beyond the Book: New Publishing Models and Online Platforms Feed Gen Z’s Need for Free or Cheap Reads.
Marlene Harris. Library Journal February 3, 2020.
Researchers Uncover Evidence That Writing Fanfic Increases Happiness.
Tobias Carroll. Inside Hook January 22, 2020.
Authors describe losing thousands of dollars in monthly income when Amazon quietly shut down its fan-fiction service — and how they bounced back.
Travis Clark. Business Insider US January 14, 2020.
The Early Internet, Explained by One Weird Celine Dion Fan Site.
Kaitlyn Tiffany. The Atlantic January 10, 2020.