Abstract
This paper advances privacy theory through examination of online shaming, focusing in particular on persecution by internet mobs. While shaming is nothing new, the technology used for modern shaming is new and evolving, making it a revealing lens through which to analyze points of analytical friction within and between traditional conceptions of privacy. To that end, this paper first explores the narrative and structure of online shaming, identifying broad categories of shaming of vigilantism, bullying, bigotry and gossiping, which are then used throughout the paper to evaluate different angles to the privacy problems raised. Second, this paper examines shaming through three dominant debates concerning privacy—privacy’s link with dignity, the right to privacy in public places and the social dimension of privacy. Certain themes emerged from this analysis. A common feature of online shaming is public humiliation. A challenge is to differentiate between a humbling (rightly knocking someone down a peg for a social transgression) and a humiliation that is an affront to dignity (wrongly knocking someone down a peg). In addition, the privacy concern of shamed individuals is not necessarily about intrusion on seclusion or revelation of embarrassing information, but rather about the disruption in their ability to continue to participate in online spaces free from attack. The privacy interest therefore becomes more about enabling participation in social spaces, enabling connections and relationships to form, and about enabling identity-making. Public humiliation through shaming can disrupt all of these inviting closer scrutiny concerning how law can be used as an enabling rather than secluding tool.
Highlights
This paper examines the privacy implications of online shaming, in particular the issues raised concerning persecution by internet mobs
Sometimes the shamed have committed a social transgression and the internet mobs use shame sanctions to enforce the norms of the online community: to condemn offensive or hateful posts, rein in gossip, expose lies, and so on
A common link between these theories and points of debate is the public humiliation and attacks on identity experienced by victims of online shaming, the idea of “this isn’t who I am” that pervades the stories of the shamed
Summary
This paper examines the privacy implications of online shaming, in particular the issues raised concerning persecution by internet mobs. The goal with this paper is to use the modern phenomenon of online shaming to illuminate weaknesses in dominant debates concerning privacy. Eric Posner asserts that, “[i]t occurs when a person violates the norms of the community, and other people respond by publicly criticizing, avoiding, or ostracizing him” [7] It is this external element of a public transgression/behaviour and social enforcement that differentiates shame from the more self-imposed feelings of guilt [1].6. The privacy debates most strained by shaming concern dignity, privacy in public and social privacy
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