Wednesday, 5th March @ 12:30pm
Abstract: Online public shaming—the practice of using the Internet to criticise perceived moral transgressions and transgressors—is commonplace. And much of it is wrongful. Its targets often suffer disproportionate harms and face abuse, doxing, and other forms of impermissible treatment. One question this raises is what should be done in response to the prevalence of wrongful public shaming online. This paper offers one part of an answer to this question. It argues that there is a compelling case for social media platforms themselves to be active in tackling wrongful online public shaming, as well as for government regulation of these platforms to stimulate such activity. The paper makes a positive case for this claim and responds to several objections.