A story about an anti-harassment lawsuit involving Facebook was just mentioned in Digital Trends. A woman in the UK, who has been the subject of several accounts of cyberbullying (of course, this is all “alleged”), has filed a lawsuit forcing Facebook to reveal the identities of the cyberbullies in question. The problem is that if Facebook collapses, what will this do to our privacy laws? It’s an intriguing situation, should a precedent of this nature be set.
The title of this post is “Brains vs Brawn” but it could just as easily have been titled “how things change technologically but moral dilemmas don’t change at all”. Let’s take the core problem: cyberbullying. Is it different from bullying 25 years ago? Well yes and no. The intention of stalkers is to instill fear in their victims. A long time ago it used to be more physical than psychological. Those who engage in cyber bullying have the same mindset as that ruthless school bully: an intent to insult either physical or psychological harm. Internet exchanges are more psychological issues than physical ones, for obvious reasons. One big difference is that the Internet user is “cloaked,” she can have many layers of security to protect her identification.
The Internet “layer” can bring out the worst in people, including trolling. It is much more difficult to harass someone in person than it is to verbally abuse someone online. Most things would not be said in a realistic real life situation. Online bullying is more like psychological warfare and many more people, with bad intentions, can engage in bullying. It has the potential to turn into a cyber mob situation. It could be argued that this has far more negative ramifications than the mere occurrence of a playground incident. The abuse can continue without end and has a high potential to spread. It is also much more difficult to monitor and/or catch.
So here we have this case where privacy laws will be able to protect cyberbullies and we ask what Facebook should do about it. On the playground, you fight or you flee. Bullies often need to be confronted. But what to do about cyberbullying. Confrontation is virtually impossible at this point. Facebook doesn’t really have a legal obligation to provide the names of people identified as cyberbullies. However, it is necessary to stop this type of abuse.
As we read later in the news snippet, it looks like the UK will try to implement a monitoring system to deter potential stalkers from taking malicious action. It is quite a company. But what does this mean for law-abiding citizens of the Internet? Should a few bad apples ruin the bunch? This doesn’t seem to be the answer either.
Until some reasonable tracking system comes into play, it’s clear what else victims of cyberbullying need to do: stay away from places where it might happen. Change your address on Facebook and start over. Don’t take the bait. This is the Internet, after all. There are a lot of baits.
On the other hand, if you are the victim of relentless cyberbullying, it may be time to find an attorney and file a lawsuit. But don’t expect Facebook to support you in any way. After all, they are running a business and a service and it is their choice to participate in their business or not.