Vengeance Culture Online

Abstract

Vengeance. Payback. Retribution. Just deserts. Evening up the score. Punishment. If there is an ever-replicating and recurring Internet meme, it is one of revenge. Intimate photos are shared online post-relationship and end up picked up by for-profit pornographic websites. Privy information is leaked into private (narrow-cast) or semi-public or public spaces (broadcast) with massive amplifications of messages into the public sphere. Violent attacks and beat-downs are videotaped and shared on video sharing sites. Flash or cyber mobs are brought together to clean-out stores and to exact vengeance on particular businesses. Information and Communication Technology (ICT), with its nexus of pseudo-anonymity, fast dissemination of information, long-term persistence of data, and mass reach, provides multiple affordances for the exacting of vengeance. The popular culture of anonymous hacktivism and cyber-vigilantism further contribute to the sense of the Internet as an ungoverned and extralegal place. Finally, a general imprudence has meant the easy activation of Internet mobs and individuals to harm-causing rumor-sharing and behavior against others—sparked by doubtful claims or loose storytelling. ICT has enabled the spillover of real-world antipathies and dark emotions into virtual spaces, which then slosh back into the real world. This chapter examines the research in the area of vengeance and how such very human impetuses manifest online. Further, this chapter examines the design features of various ICT platforms and socio-technical spaces that may support vengeance-based communications and actions and proposes ways to mitigate some of these dark affordances.

Revenge via social media and relationship contexts: Prevalence and measurement

“…Social media platforms may also offer avengers 2 enhanced ability to retaliate anonymously (Hai-Jew, 2014). Because it permits individuals to avoid the consequences that result when they can be identified, this increased anonymity may considerably lower the costs associated with getting even.…”

“…Not only may a vengeful social media post reach a target’s entire social network on that platform within seconds, but social network members may share it, too. The post may even “go viral.” Finally, because content on social media platforms is irretrievable and may resurface at any time (Hai-Jew, 2014), targets of social media revenge may find it nearly impossible to completely disassociate themselves from the malevolent actions of avengers who take vengeance on social media platforms.…”

“…The post may even "go viral." Finally, because content on social media platforms is irretrievable and may resurface at any time (Hai-Jew, 2014), targets of social media revenge may find it nearly impossible to completely disassociate themselves from the malevolent actions of avengers who take vengeance on social media platforms.…”