Now the online hunt to reveal extremists has raised concerns about unintended consequences, or even collateral damage.
This comment exemplifies the important theme within participatory culture that is addressed in the Module 5 lecture about information ethics: "We’re in this space where in theory, we are all benefiting from each other's participation but there can be unintended consequences from that participation." (Moss, 2019).
Online vigilantism has been around since the early days of the internet. So has “doxxing” — originally a slang term among hackers for obtaining and posting private documents about an individual, usually a rival or enemy. To hackers, who prized their anonymity, it was considered a cruel attack.
Bowles's explanation and definition of doxxing as a form of online vigilante justice recalls Jenkins statement in “Defining Participatory Culture" that, “Over time, the term “resistance” came to refer to symbolic gestures that questioned or challenged the values of the status quo.” (Jenkins, 15).
The story’s charm disguises the invasion of privacy at its heart: the way technology is both eroding our personal boundaries and coercing us in deleterious ways.
Cross realizes that the author of the Twitter feed, #PlaneBae, while appearing to act in "good faith" is actually unwittingly acting in "bad faith" outside of the code of information ethics. This realization displays the second element of REP in Ribble's blog post, "Digital citizenship is more important than ever: "Access: Not everyone has the same opportunities with technology, whether the issue is physical, socio-economic or location." (Ribble, 2016). Since #PlaneBae did not have physical access to social media or perhaps the socio-economic means "to buy plane Wi-Fi and share the conversations of strangers with other strangers on the Internet." this put her in a disadvantageous position of information privilege. (Friedman & Sow, 2018).
Then I realized that was precisely how I was treating these very real people. My stomach turned as I considered how I’d feel if every twitch of my arm, half of my conversation, and even my bathroom usage were all narrated, without my knowledge, for a swelling audience of several hundred thousand people online
Cross's comment aptly highlight's Aminatou's admonition in "Call Your Girlfriend," to "take a beat" (Friedman & Sow, 2018) and reflect on whether this Twitter feed adheres to the first element of REP in Ribble's blog post, "Digital citizenship is more important than ever: "Etiquette. Students need to understand how their technology use affects others." (Ribble, 2016).
To be clear, there is a law that defines domestic terrorism but not one that charges people who commit acts of terrorism in America. People who conspire with international terrorists—even if they aren’t materially involved in an act of violence—are charged with “acts of terrorism transcending international boundaries.”
Although I have previously heard this fact on television news programs, I was surprised to read about it in such detail in the link sourced in the story, as I have never read the United States Code of Laws. In reviewing it in detail and putting in the context of this blog post, it is my opinion that this particular code needs to be revised to allow more severe charges to be filed in future cases.
But I end up coming back to this simple stuff because I can’t shake the feeling that digital literacy needs to start with the mirror and head-checks before it gets to automotive repair or controlled skids. Because it is these simple behaviors, applied as habits and enforced as norms, that have the power to change the web as we know it, to break our cycle of reaction and recognition, and ultimately to get even our deeper investigations off to a better start.
I find it interesting that despite having coined the phrase “abstinence-only web education” in 2009 to describe scholars’ response to solely rely on library materials rather than the Internet to avoid misinformation --- and despite having worked with Ward Cunningham, the American programmer who developed the first wiki in 1994 – Caulfield instead chose to develop a grassroots response that challenged the abstinence-only web education mainstream belief by creating the Digital Polarization Initiative to improve web literacy skills for college age undergraduates, i.e. the next generation of scholars and members of mainstream culture who could then be well versed fact checking online information before disseminating it across the web.