‘What Happens Next?’: Are There ‘Good’ Trolls?
“Wanted” posters. Your local neighbourhood watch. CrimeStoppers.
There’s a long tradition of citizens assisting law enforcement in reporting illegal activities and identifying criminals. The advent of the internet has added new dimensions to citizen-assisted policing, enabling law enforcement and other organisations to engage with the public like never before.
But there’s a darker side, too. Now, internet users can use social media and other platforms to call out people who haven’t committed a formal crime, or haven’t – in their view – been held accountable by existing systems. Rather than working with authorities, they’re taking justice into their own hands.
In part one of the What Happens Next? podcast’s investigation into digital vigilantism, host Dr Susan Carland and her expert guests examined the ways behaviour can go awry, sometimes even translating into real-world violence. In part two of this series, you’ll learn whether or not digital vigilantism can be used for good – and what you should do if you encounter it.
Listen: Does Digital Vigilantism Work?
Join Monash University criminologist Dr Lennon Chang; Dr Mark Howard, a philosopher working in the Monash Data Futures Institute; Monash alumnus and violent extremism expert Dr Josh Roose; and journalist Ginger Gorman, author of Troll Hunting.
“There's a troll in all of us ... When you're interacting with someone online, it's gamified. You don't have a social contract, you don't know the person, you can't see them. I'm sitting opposite you now, we're having this really nice conversation. But if you were saying something online I didn't agree with, I would have a propensity to be more aggressive than usual.”
Ginger Gorman
What Happens Next? will be back next week with a new topic.
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