Digital Life, Digital Danger: Harassment in Cyberspace

Posted By Laughing_Wolf

UPDATE:  Our speaker is pushing for new civil rights legislation to make the internet safe for women and others.  Please read below and share your thoughts on this here, or on Twitter with the hashtag #kcdig so your opinions can be heard. 

Our after dinner speaker, Danielle Citron, looked at the problem with anonymous mobs on the internet.  As before, the majority of this is being put below the fold and will be built in part or whole from the tweets.

Anonymous groups come together to harrass, etc.

Anonymous -- attacks female bloggers, web, etc.  Example given of one blog/web person attacked.  Targeted "Hart" journalist who wrote on women's issues.  Shut her down.  Have list of web sites they've shut down, all female. 

Cathy Sierra example.  Another anonymous group.  Didn't this come down to one individual who confessed??? 

Attacks have profound effect.  Increases chance of real attack. 

Need to think about it in terms of a legal framework, as internet increases behavior (?)  Naturally occuring forces won't prevent/solve such behavior.  Needs civil rights framework.  Regular law won't do.  Only civil rights remedies will address peculiar harms stigmatizing individuals causes.  Psychic harm.  When Cathy Sierra attacked, other female bloggers felt it as an attack on them and went offline.  Attacks entrench gender bias online. 

Trivilization critique -- just fratboy pranks, can't take heat get out.  Misses grave nature of the harm, and importance of our online lives to our livelihood.  Can't undo psychic harm.

Free speech critique -- online is wild west, absolute freedom, we can't have regulations come in. Civil liberties against regulation.  That argument fails as a matter of free speech and supreme court.  Pursuit of online mobs would increase free speech and improve dialog.  Free from rape threats, etc., can continue to write and express themselves.  Group attacks add little to political discourse and prevent people from taking part.  Not truth, but actions that silence.  Sexual harassment can form basis as court rulings show way and applicability to dealing with this threat. 

Anonymous groups come together to prevent. 

Q&A

Website and blogs immunized, change.  Yes.  Massive amount of irresponsibility allowed.  Would be wise to change.  Of course have to consider chilling effect, but need to reconsider 230. 

Cathy Sierra case, wasn't it someone she knew?  No, she didn't know, aren't you trying to trivialize this?  No, what left to it, what provoked it?  Statistics from U of M study, tap dance, statistics show mysogony online.  You think this is what happened?  It's possible Whatever the why, we need to look at consequences.  No one joined effort by Scoville as mysogony too entrenced, but we need to change.

How would you change 230?  Traceable anonymity.  Keep 230, but ensure that members of an online mob are responsible for their writings. 

When did this happen?  Spring 2007.  Anonymous attacks ongoing.  Similar to going after abortion docs?  Well, no but... 

It seems anonymity is serious issue, are we not just dealing with some extreme individuals?  Well, that's why we need traceable anonymity, anonymity makes it so hard to bring law to the internet.

Do you blog?  Yes, concurrent opinions, and yes, do think it exposes me to attack.  Discussion.  Ended up getting comments/communications with sexual threats.  Not discussed widely because of these threats?  Yes, women tend to go offline rather than respond.  Had good backup, made difference.  Police others telling them to go offline, be disempowered. 

Autoadmit discussion. 

Those under 18, what sort of recourse do you have for parents/those under 18.  Hateful and sexualized, so what do we tell parents?  Monitor. 

What crimes does current U.S. law cover, not cover; and, minorities?  Discussion. 

Is the group Anonymous cited the same as going after Scientology and in turn subjected to anonymous attacks.  Yes. 

Question on criminal law, and specific examples of insufficient?  Criminal does not send proper message.  Redirect, any specific cases cited that didn't do enough?  Well, no not many cases but new law will send message. 

See this spread a la Yakuza?  Yes, I do see the possibility. 

Has Anonymous attacked main stream media sites?  I don't know. 

In the enforcement, set out honeypot, how close do you get to entrapment?  I don't think LE savvy enough to know what's going on... 

Do you see potential chilling effect on whistleblowers?  Example?  Yes, courts have upheld that, cherish, but think we have overprotection of anonymity online. 

In newspapers, we struggle with our own comments section, what can we do to encourage better discourse?  Police ourselves.  Example of own site not being a free speech zone in our comments.  Encourage deletion, be aggressive in deletion.  Treat as academic classroom.  230 discussion and hands off encouragement.  Discussion. 

Think we are equating free speech with what's on the bathroom wall, to our detriment.  With internet, bathroom wall is everywhere.

What about people who publicize your IP address?  No, not reasonable expectation of privacy. 

Question about cyberharassment, real example. 

Online reputation clean-up companies, feasible, real?  Don't think can deliver on all promised, discussion.  Dangerous to fight back in many ways, attack the mob they hit back harder.  Not that should give up, but.... Don't think there is  a market answer. 

Do you have preventative tips?  Don't want to counsel you to give up the advantages of using real name, discussion.  Can't control third party attack sites, can't defend online like we can (pepperspray) in real life. 

Do we have cyber restraining order and what would it look like, how proceed?  John Doe subpoena, go after; discussion. 

LW

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Digital Life, Digital Danger: Harassment in Cyberspace

UPDATE:  Our speaker is pushing for new civil rights legislation to make the internet safe for women and others.  Please read below and share your thoughts on this here, or on Twitter with the hashtag #kcdig so your opinions can be heard. 

Our after dinner speaker, Danielle Citron, looked at the problem with anonymous mobs on the internet.  As before, the majority of this is being put below the fold and will be built in part or whole from the tweets.

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» Making the Internet Safe for Women from The WatchCat
As some of you know, I've had a few problems in cyberspace. I'm thankful to say that nothing has escalated into a physical confrontation or a major cyber attack, but I can also say that I now live under some fairly strict personal security rules. [Read More]