Photography and Death: Framing Death throughout History

Dark side of instant messaging: an empirical investigation from technology and society perspective

“…Here, e-WOM means the quick spreading of information with the help of IM platforms (Kim and Shin, 2015; Dimitropoulos et al , 2019; Chaudhuri et al , 2020; Kar et al , 2021). Information of a crime is spread through e-WOM, and IM users sometimes become overemotional when they see that and they cause another crime, such as mob lynching (Choi et al , 2012; Ferreira, and Franco, 2019; Ghosh et al , 2020a; Harris, 2020). Information spread though e-WOM may be completely unverified, wrong or at least it may be inappropriate (Choliz, 2012).…”

“…This disinformation that instigates a group of people to lynch someone without due process is substantially affected and moderated by the influence of IM (Ali, 2016). The influence of IM acts as an effective moderator and positive catalyst to the dissemination of wrongful and inappropriate information through IM (Aparna and Chauhan, 2012; Harris, 2020). The negative consequences of IM that are instrumental in causing mob lynching also destabilises social harmony, as studies by Mohit (2012) and Supriya (2012) showed that social harmony is adversely affected by the commission of illegal offences such as mob lynching.…”

“…But the extant literature is found silent on how such IM could instigate some people to indulge in mob lynching. This study has taken a holistic attempt to investigate how several IM platforms, such as WhatsApp, WeChat and so on, in the form of e-WOM could contribute to wrongfully instigate people to indulge in an illegal activity, inimical to society (Rosenbaum and Wong, 2012; Harris, 2020). Such wrongful activities by people in response to any unauthorized information are construed as a social disease and social crimes.…”