Online shaming, where individuals participate in social policing by shaming supposed wrongdoings on the internet, is a rapidly increasing and global phenomenon. Public shaming, one of the oldest ways to punish society’s transgressors, now has a 21st century makeover. The World Wide Web is the new global village. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are the new village squares. Smartphone users are the new social community. And hash tag wars, YouTube videos and Facebook likes are the new virtual stones that the world is mastering to pillory and shame people.
Internet shaming is an online version of vigilantism, in which people take the law into their own hands. As in the physical world, vigilantes often believe that their actions are a way to bring about justice that would not otherwise be served. In other cases, online shaming is used to attack someone out of spite or to discredit the victim. Worse still, when directed against the unknown ‘other’ online vigilantism fuels xenophobia and can lead to catastrophes like mob lynching and communal riots. So, online shaming can lead to harsh consequences for the poster, the person being shamed, and others. Some of the serious consequences associated with online shaming include:
- Ruining reputations and careers;
- Causing severe psychological damage;
- Being targeted or shamed yourself
- Civil and criminal lawsuits.
History
Public shaming is a medieval relic. Long before the internet, people who violated moral codes in a society was dragged through the crowded streets with citizens spitting on them, throwing mud, rotten eggs and dirt at them and abusing them and their families. They would get fastened to a pillar, stocks or pillory, a device in which the offender’s head and hands were locked in a wooden frame. The masses would gather to taunt and jeer them, hurling rotten food at their heads along with insulting words. This dual punishment and spectacle — aptly named pillorying — started more than 1,000 years ago in parts of Europe. And it lasted well into the 19th century, when, you could say, it got cancelled. It’s worth noting that this practice was eventually outlawed because it became regarded to be too cruel. Even if the victim survived the punishment did not end with the physical pain of flogging but had deep psychological impact on the person who would have to live with the contempt of the fellow citizens. England fully abolished the pillory by 1837, along with many nearby countries and most U.S. territories by that time. The state of Delaware was a last holdout in the Western world, outlawing it as recently as 1905. However, some countries in our neighbourhood still practice this as a punishment for blasphemy.
The Indian scenario
India is no heaven when it comes to public shaming. Historically nose and ears were chopped off as a punishment for adultery. In remote villages, shaming of the medieval variety persists. For example, in eastern Bihar, a 14-year-old Dalit girl had her face blackened and was paraded through her village as a punishment for talking to a boy. And, still in 2014, another woman in a village of Rajasthan, accused of killing her nephew, was paraded naked on a donkey on the orders of none less than the panchayat. Mob lynching of cattle smugglers is not rare either. Before the advent of social media, government watchdogs had their own ways of naming and shaming. For instance, the Income-Tax Department has revealed the names of 18 biggest tax defaulters in India on its website. It includes defaulters’ PAN card details and their last known addresses. So, we are not yet sure where to draw the line.
Not good for the victim
If you are angry with someone, you may think it will be worthwhile to humiliate them online. But it is important to remember that online shaming can cause long-term damage to the other person’s reputation. You could be responsible for someone losing their job and their income, especially if you shame an employee or business. Shanker Mishra of Peegate ignominy may not serve a long jail sentence but has already lost his overseas corporate job and he and his family will have to live with this humiliation, shame and disrepute because the internet doesn’t let you forget or be forgotten! Remaining the butt of scatological jokes is now his destiny!
And who can forget the White House intern Monica Lewinsky? The infamous 1998 incident with President Bill Clinton occurred at the dawn of the internet age — a fact not lost on Lewinsky, who says her name has appeared in “almost 40 rap songs.” Her actions as a 24-year-old intern went viral pre-social media. When she emerged in 2014 after a decade of quiet existence, she had a message to share. She also had a master's degree in social psychology, earned in London where she hunkered down for grad school. Vanity Fair printed her exclusive comeback story in 2014. Then she took the stage to tell of life after becoming “that woman” in one of history’s most widely broadcast sex scandals: “I went from being a completely private figure to a publicly humiliated one, worldwide,” Lewinsky says in her 2015 TED Talk, which now has more than 18 million views. In recent years, the rise of Facebook and Twitter, and the potential for public shaming on the internet, motivated Lewinsky to speak up. “A marketplace has emerged where public humiliation is a commodity, and shame is an industry,” she says in the video.
Justine Sacco in 2013 became a poster child for viral Twitter shaming when minutes before boarding an 11-hour flight to South Africa, she posted a tweet (to her 170 followers) that permanently changed her life: “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” By the time Sacco landed, tens of thousands of people had responded to and shared her tweet. The hashtag #HasJustineLandedYet went viral around the world, with a barrage of criticism calling her racist. The moment was fuelled in part by the fact that she was airborne and would remain oblivious to the fallout until she reconnected to the internet. She also worked as a senior communications director, which created the perfect storm of irony and internet memes. Sacco was immediately fired from her job, and became the subject of endless articles and a book.
One of the overwhelming questions in all these cases, and many similar instances, is to what degree any single blunder should define a person’s reputation. And when does Twitter shaming — or any pile-on of criticism toward someone — become bullying? The pile-on effect of online shaming can actually trigger sympathy toward an offender, even when their remark or misstep was grave. The more people who participate in collective shaming, the more this shaming can start to look like bullying.
Some argue shame can be a forceful tool for change when wielded against powerful figures and institutions. But when it’s weaponized against others in shared digital spaces, these same tactics can morph into insidious behaviours, like cyber bullying or online harassment. Any reasonable person would agree that, for a politically insensitive act or tasteless joke, permanently ruining someone's life is too harsh a penalty. But these days public shaming is increasingly frequent. They've become a new kind of grisly entertainment, like a national reality show.
Not good for the perpetrator
Most of us are socially nice and pleasant individuals and we do not intend to harm others. Once when our surge of anger subsides and we start thinking logically, we may come to realize that on the spur of the moment we were judgemental and harsh and we could have worded our tweet/post differently. While we may feel okay with those consequences when we were red with rage, it helps to think about the harm we could actually cause once we are sober and start thinking logically. Even if the other person had a bad attitude or did something wrong, was it so bad that their children or family deserve to suffer too?
Then again, there are two sides to every story. We all have bad days and make mistakes. In the past, we did not run the risk of eternal public humiliation for the world to see via online shaming. It behooves everyone to stop and think before pushing that “submit” button, “Have I ever made a mistake at work, been in a bad mood, or said something I should not have said?” Sometimes, when we put ourselves in the other person’s shoes, we are not so quick to rush to judgment.
Whether you like it or not the things posted to the internet can last forever. Even when shamers feel remorse and try to delete a post, it is often too late. Most of today’s internet users now know how to take screenshots of posts, making the post last forever even if it is later removed. The same is even truer for viral posts. Unfortunately, we never really know just how close someone might be to the brink – and an impulsive act of online shaming could be the very thing that pushes someone over the edge. A split-second decision to post something online could lead to a lifetime of pain and regret, for both the shamer and the victim.
Lastly, there are very strict laws against cyber-bullying and if the victim or his/her family takes the legal option to fight back things may turn distinctly uncomfortable for the shamer. Victims have committed suicide and shamers have been held accountable for abetment to suicide.
The problem of speaking out against trolls
For better or worse, the internet and social media have significantly amplified humanity’s means of public shaming, taking victims from the town square to a global network of connected screens. When you are a solitary voice speaking against the prevailing troll and asking to know the other half of the story you risk becoming victim number 2 as you are seen condoning the perpetrator. The shamers are sitting on high pedestals and passing judgment on others as if they themselves are paragon of public virtues!
Good at times
It is not that there is nothing good about trolls. Twitter and social media masses often rally against racism, sexism and other behaviour rooted in bigotry. If you examine cultural movements such as #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo, you’ll find specific offenders being shamed like Harvey Weinstein along with challenges to broader organizations, like police departments or political parties. Some research shows that collective anger can also be a unifying and effective force for systemic change. The Arab Spring movement is a perfect example. A Hyderabad activist Sunitha Krishnan kicked off the #shametherapist campaign, uploading rape videos to help identify rapists and bring them to book. In the 21st century, the rise of megacorps and powerful nations has brought in concerns around human rights, environment etc. At a global level, often there are no laws or global courts that can force megacorps or governments to remain accountable. It is here that the fear of public naming and shaming works beautifully
Online shaming can become ever-more complex when the target is the culture at large. Issues like white supremacy like Klu Klux Clan models are often related to the history of racism and slavery in the U.S. Exposing these matters and their effects can spark an array of reactions in individuals.
Research
UK-based Tom Ewing, content director, BrainJuicer Labs, explains that anthropologists see the world as divided into three different cultures:
- guilt (personal morality/conscience — think the West),
- shame (judgement of others — think the East)
- fear (threat — authoritarian regimes like North Korea).
“So public shaming in the internet age is frightening because it takes the tool of a shame culture and is being used in guilt cultures too. And because it puts consequences in the hands of the crowd you can be shamed even if you don’t feel you’ve done anything wrong,” says Ewing. In the 21st century shaming is far more dangerous because it is easier, faster and reaches further. Anybody can join the online mob. And unlike in the past, there is no control, protocol or code of conduct to regulate behaviour. Humans are the meanest race and we derive pleasure in other’s miseries. Otherwise how brands can constantly used shame to sell their products for smelly armpits, darker skin, stunted growth, lackluster hair?
The cyber-mob phenomenon won't go away soon. Human nature and psychology is at play. When they can't see their victims, people tend to be far more vicious than they would be face-to-face (the online dis-inhibition effect). And even if some people might be inclined to defend the victim or add some context, they don't, because they don't want to get in the cross fire (the bystander effect).Yet in a twisted way, there's a certain kind of hope in the increasing regularity of such public shaming. As they become commonplace, maybe they'll lose their ability to shock.
