Issues and Challenges of Cybervigilantism
What are the sociocultural implications of cybervigilantism?
The bright side:Cybervigilantism can be socially and psychologically empowering for netizens who pool their knowledge and resources together to achieve a common goal, like exposing social wrongdoings and crimes.
Vigilante acts can provide the general public with an increased sense of self-efficacy and perceived control (Chang & Poon, 2016). Cybervigilantism can function as a powerful social recourse, particularly in contexts where the law is ineffectual or where state agencies are incapable of sourcing and sharing important information.
Crowd-powered expansion of online knowledge can address significant problems and aid in problem solving. Civilians can be motivated toward greater levels of civic participation as they utilize their computer skills to monitor and collate information on criminal activities, and then share this intelligence with criminal justice agencies. (Huey, Nhan & Broll, 2013)
The dark side:
Yet the operations of cyber sleuths can have negative or unfair repercussions for the perpetrator or the privacy of others erroneously associated with them (Bu, 2013). In some cases, there is limited information about what has actually occurred, and flesh search activities can lead to biased accounts of the truth and the spreading of misinformation. The pursuit of justice for one person may also implicate the safety and credibility of other people and organizations, leading to a cloud of social and legal challenges (Juliano, 2012).
Other darker aspects of cyber vigilantism include people being falsely accused, cyber vigilantism turning into cyberbullying, or even cyber suicide, an attempt to erase all traces of one’s identity online. This can cause the line of victim and perpetrator to blur, as the actions of cyber vigilantism can turn into cyberbullying. In some cases, the payment for the misdeed can be viewed as extreme, especially in cases of using shame and public humiliation to enforce strict societal norms.
Read this article: Digital Shame, Facebook Justice
Author Biography
Dr. Pauline Hope Cheong is Professor at the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State University. She studies the complex interactions between communication technologies and different cultural communities around the world. She believes that invisible yet powerful cultural and communicative forces make up how we interact and organize with digital media, to impact participation and power in society. At ASU’s Center for Asian Research, she served as the co-director of @AsiaMediated: Interdisciplinary research and teaching innovation, funded by the US Department of Education.Her latest multidisciplinary project examines the user practices and perceptions of the Internet of Things, including how highly connected and underserved populations experience digital divides. Her recent grant funded projects related to changing knowledge, authority and leadership practices examine how clergy and teachers maintain the interest of their students and congregations when the use of mobile and social media is so prevalent. Another of her interests concerns how religious groups use technology to interact and form local and global communities. She has investigated how communication technologies facilitate and constrain relations within cyber-vigilante groups and rumor-mongers.
Cheong has published more than 100 articles and books and has received research awards by the National Communication Association, Western Communication Association, and the International Communication Association. She is often invited to teach and speak in Asia, North America and Europe.
In 2016, she received the Zebulon Pearce Distinguished Teaching Award in the Social Sciences, the highest teaching honor in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. She has also received the Master Teacher Award (Western States Communication Association), and the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award (Faculty Women's Association, ASU).
