Online Harassment or Free Speech? (Week 11)
Despite the many benefits of digital citizenship, social media often provides a space for bullying and online harassment. Online harassment can be defined as the use of the Internet to harass, threaten, or maliciously embarrass someone (CCOHS 2017). This has become an increasing concern as according to Pew Research, 41% of Americans have been personally subjected to harassing behavior online, and an even larger share (66%) has witnessed these behaviors directed at others (Pew 2017).
Image from @sravya_attaluri on Instagram.
On many forums, all comments are anonymous. On others, people have the ability to create usernames or fake names that do not represent their actual identity. This anonymity is utilized to reduce the ability of the victim to defend themselves and to shield the harasser from social consequences, thus worsening the impact and allowing harassment to take place more easily due to lack of accountability (Moore et al. 2012). Further, the consequences of online harassment seem far less obvious and personal, as the victim can not be seen or heard responding. It is much more difficult to empathise with a person when you are unable to see their pain and the damage caused (Norton 2016), therefore it is ideal for harassers to bully online rather than in-person. The Internet acts as a barrier between themselves and the victim, leading to feelings of fearlessness and security.
Specifically in the United States, there is large debate as to whether these behaviours are those of ‘free speech’ or those of bullying and oppression. According to Pew Research, approximately “43% of Americans say that offensive speech online is too often excused as not being a big deal, but a larger share (56%) feel that many people take offensive content online too seriously” (Pew 2017). With most harassment targeted toward individuals based on political views, gender, physical appearance and race (Pew 2017), the subjectivity surrounding online conversation leads to further disparity between minorities and the perceived ‘straight, cisgendered, white conservative man’. The question then arises - how far is too far?
Image from @femaleinspiring on Instagram.
Australia has seen recent controversy over a Facebook group called ‘Melb Guy Pals’, created as a men’s alternative of the ‘Melbourne Gal Pals’, a group amassing over 67 thousand participants. However within hours of the group’s formation, there were several explicit posts targeting young women. One boy posted that if he received 75 “love reacts” on his post, he would upload a sex tape of himself and his ex-girlfriend, with others outright posting unconsensual sexual content of underage women (Cohen & Placella 2020). Many posts tagged girls and young women, calling them “whores” and “fat”, with others making horrendous statements such as “Holocaust #2 but instead of jews we target women”. This page was immediately reported by thousands of people after stories of its participants were shared, being removed only days after it was created (Boseley 2020). However, many replica pages spawned following this, claiming free speech and blaming women for their ‘harassment’.
Ultimately, it is incredibly difficult to dictate what is said online, and the concept of ‘free speech’ will continue to be debated. However for those who are thinking of harassing others online, please consider - would you be capable of saying this to someone’s face?
Image from @bemoremvmt on Instagram.
References
Boseley, M 2020, Melbourne 'guy pals' Facebook group shut down after 'revenge porn' and misogynist abuse posted, The Guardian, viewed 28th May 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/17/melbourne-guy-pals-facebook-group-shut-down-revenge-porn-misogynist-abuse-posted
CCOHS 2017, Internet Harassment or Cyberbullying : OSH Answers, viewed 28th May 2020, https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/psychosocial/cyberbullying.html
Cohen, H & Placella, L 2020, Revenge porn sees plug pulled on Facebook site, copycat groups emerge, Mojo, viewed 28th May 2020, https://www.mojonews.com.au/gender-and-sexuality/melb-guy-pals-removed-by-facebook-but-copycats-groups-begin-to-emerge
Moore, M, Nakano, T, Enomoto, A & Suda, T 2012, ‘Anonymity and roles associated with aggressive posts in an online forum’, Computers In Human Behavior, vol.28, no.3, pp.861-867
Norton 2016, Why people are more likely to see online bullying than offline, viewed 28th May 2020, https://uk.norton.com/norton-blog/2016/08/why_people_are_more.html
Pew 2017, Online Harassment 2017, viewed 28th May 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/07/11/online-harassment-2017/