a history and exploration of online harassment
Whether or not you have a positive experience on the Internet highly depends on what sites you choose to frequent. This is due to the idea of platformisation: For example, gaming on a console platform will result in a much different experience than gaming on a mobile platform. In relation to social media, some platforms are more civilised and moderated than others. However, regardless of what social media platform you use, there is always potential for online harassment to occur. Online harassment can be defined as: âdeception and manipulation for lulz, often in jest and for the tacit fun of community membersâ (see lecture slide 8 for more definitions). However, online harassment can be used for far more sinister motivations than just mere fun. The unbelievable amount of hatred and threats that Anita Sarkeesian received during the GamerGate drama was described by Sarkeesian as a âcybermobâ. Similarly, this article from The Conversation refers to the term âtechnology violenceâ, while this article from Markwick & Caplan discusses âweaponised harassmentâ. Finally, thereâs the good olâ âcyberbullyingâ, a more widely accepted term. Regardless of how you choose to label it: The Internet, as a platform in itself, affords personal or networked harassment with a low chance of real-world consequences.
Why donât you take a seat: We need someone like Chris Hansen or the âCatfishâ team to track down these cybermobs
Experiencing person-to-person harassment online is very common for many Internet users. This may be in the form of insulting someone through personal messaging, or by posting ârevenge pornâ. According to Markwick & Caplanâs article, the Internet allows people to âstalk, intimidate, harass, humiliate, and coerce intimate partners, particularly girls and womenâ. This old article from 2012 discusses the app âGirls Around Meâ, which fortunately no longer exists. The app combined functionality from Facebook, Foursquare, and Google Maps to show its creepy male userbase the locations of nearby women. I remember hearing about this at the time and being disgusted at both the developers and the users of the app. The fact that this app was developed eight years ago demonstrates that stalking and harassing women via the Internet is nothing new, and unfortunately, this is still a very prevalent practice today. The aforementioned article from The Conversation also posits that people who are not as tech-savvy as someone who may want to harass them online (for example, a jealous ex-boyfriend) is empowered by their superior technological skills, hence justifying the term âtechnology violenceâ. A recent example of such a character is Joe from Netflixâs âYouâ, a show which explores how Joe, a deranged stalker, has the ability to control and gaslight vulnerable women that he is sexually interested in. âGaslightingâ itself is only a term that has become relevant recently, and is used to dismiss women who make accusations of sexual harassment as part of the #MeToo movement. This article defines gaslighting as the âpsychological manipulation of a person in order to erode their sense of self and sanity.â Gaslighting is one of many tools in an online trollâs arsenal.
The showâs greatest achievement is how the handsome, psycho Joe remains the protagonist hero, despite his horrible actions (You, 2018) (BTW, WATCH THIS SHOW!)
As I mentioned earlier, online harassment can also be ânetworkedâ. Markwick & Caplanâs article summarises this form of harassment as such:
âharassing behaviour is often networked in that it is coordinated and organisedâ.
Networked harassment is generally much more serious and dangerous than person-to-person harassment, as it is much more difficult to ignore potentially thousands of online trolls and haters. One of the largest examples of networked harassment was directed at Anita Sarkeesian in the aforementioned GamerGate situation. Sarkeesian was threatened with rape and murder for her plans to create a YouTube series exploring how women were objectified by video games. I found it interesting in her TedX talk how she highlighted the fact that many of the people who sent her these vile threats were not just stupid teenage boys, but fully-grown men. This suggests that misogyny still runs deep among all generations of men, and that perhaps the Internetâs affordance of free knowledge has not made society as educated and sophisticated as hoped. I have also been on the receiving end of networked harassment, and even gaslighting, albeit to a far lesser extent than Sarkeesian. This occurred back in the early 2010âs when a forum thread was created about me, accusing me of cheating (âhackingâ) in an online game. Dozens of anonymous gamers made mean insults and pushed me to confess that I was cheating. This was a lot to handle for a young boy who had no idea how to even âhackâ a video game, and I subsequently quit playing this game and never returned. However, itâs not so simple just to âlog off and walk awayâ when you are the victim of networked harassment on your public social media accounts, which is often where such harassment occurs. People have spent much time and effort on âvisibility labourâ in order to build their social media identities, and itâs unfair to throw all of this away just to avoid (usually undeserved) harassment.
...heh, maybe I was hacking after all. I guess weâll never know...
Anonymity has its pros and cons in relation to online harassment. On one hand, I suffered no real-world consequences over this video game incident, as no-one could link my real name to my gamertag. However, this concept works both ways: Anonymous harassers will also suffer no real consequences for their actions if no-one knows who they really are behind the computer screen. Doxing (leaking someoneâs personal details on public social media) can also be used by either the harasser or the victim. Harassers can leak information about someone who does not want that information made public. On the other hand, victims can dox their harassers, which allows for the possibility of losing their job or respect from their friends, family, and other social media connections. An example of this is when Clementine Ford doxes men who abuse her online (although, she has doxed children and the mentally disabled, which is very disappointing). The final topic Iâd like to discuss is regulation and moderation of social media and online forums. Personally, I believe that the less the Internet is legally regulated, the better. This is not due to anything regarding online harassment perse, but more indicative of my overall philosophy on privacy. Features such as anonymity have advantages far beyond the realms of this discussion on harassment.
Clem Ford has landed in hot water recently over her sexist COVID-19 comments (Twitter, now deleted)
I also have mixed feeling on moderating content online. Iâll quickly discuss two different attitudes towards moderation. Firstly, reddit is quite heavily moderated, and yet I do spend the majority of my social media time there. Moderation is left to elected community members called âmoderatorsâ, who can delete / lock posts, delete comments, ban users, and enforce the rules of each individual subreddit (community). This form of community moderation works very well most of the time, however it has been known to fail when moderators become power-hungry or corrupt. Facebook takes a different approach to moderation. Users can flag content which they believe breaks company policies, but content is ultimately deleted by employees, not community moderators. Iâve actually had a brief argument about this very topic on a Facebook comment section before. Someone stated that Facebook should regulate comments more heavily, as it is their own backyard. I pointed out that itâs kind of hard to keep control of a backyard with 1.73 billion people visiting each day. Overall, I prefer redditâs moderation strategy, but ultimately there is no perfect solution.
Facebook founder âZark Fuckernerdâ may regret his recent statements after viral satire article from The Chaser (Twitter, 2020, tweet link, article link)















