Open opendigitalsafety opened 6 years ago
What is cyberbullying? Define both in terms of seriously adverse P2P social media interaction (e.g. Sadie Riggs) and the serious effects of coordinated online attacks against academics (e.g. Mary Bryson (UBC), Rabab Abdulhadi (Stanford), Dorothy Kim (Vassar), Stephen Salaita, etc.). Anita Sarkeesian has a good article on why cyberbullying as a term minimizes the actual damage done in these actions.
Connect recent instantiations to a history of online mob behaviours stemming from both online frontier mentality and the creation of Anonymous as effective media presence tactic. See the posited connections between #gamergate and the 2016 US electoral cycle, and the work of Whitney Phillips on troll cultures, for more.
2a. Just a note: many of the people named above have experienced significant disruption to their lives; I have deliberately not linked to anything connecting this document to them. Having the gamergate mention above will not help. Any suggestions on ways to mitigate that in this documentation, or the work to follow, would be appreciated.
What is doxxing? Define, then think through case studies (Zoe Quinn comes to mind), and discuss as an example of online violence having offline, IRL, physical consequences. The NYT article on SWATting might come in handy here. Connect back to earlier modules on asymmmetrical labor undertaken by students in required social media coursework, or to differential risk borne by scholars doing (say) antiracist research.
What legal protections exist against online violence? Are legal solutions the ones we need most right now? What are the pitfalls of prosecuting online violence cases, and what other options exist? Danielle Citron's work might be helpful here.
What preventive measures exist against online violence, especially in the research and/or teaching contexts? What would constitute a workable model for incorporating online safety into a course? What institutional, departmental, or individual support would constitute best practiices to promote, support, and enable open scholarship in contemporary media ecologies??
5a. This #5 seems like a potential separate module to me: What institutional protections, backing, contingency plans, T&P policies, would be helpful for promoting open scholarship in a research-intensive environment like the UW? How must colleges support their departments in the event of a coordinated attack? Other institutions have weathered similar situations with varying levels of grace; what constitutes best practices, and how could we implement them here?
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