Gender digilantism and bystanders: networked cyber intimate partner violence in Hong Kong

Abstract

This study uses the concept of gender digilantism to examine the roles of bystanders in cyber intimate partner violence (IPV). Gender digilantism is defined as “the leverage of information and communication technologies by netizens to police perceived transgression of gender and sexual norms.” It is a form of informal justice-seeking in which netizens take extrajudicial actions against a wide array of social infractions. Extant research documents how informal justice-seeking in cyberspace has empowered victim-survivors of gender-based violence; however, its repressive potential in reproducing gender biases and misogyny through gender digilantism has been less studied. This study contributes to the literature using online ethnography to examine a real-life example of cyber IPV in Hong Kong. It shows how informal justice-seeking legitimizes bystander involvement in cyber IPV. Moreover, it transforms cyber IPV from primarily dyadic violence involving intimate partners to networked violence involving anonymous netizens from different online platforms who co-perpetrate violence.