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Cyberbullying: Where Does the Responsibility Lie?

Jacque Lewis

Senior Project

Dr. Kimberly Johnson

April 25th, 2015

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ABSTRACT

Social Networks, one of the greatest communications tools to ever be created online.

Finding someone who is not on a social network of any kind is next to impossible. It is definitely

amazing, anyone anywhere can be connected to on a social networks through our phones, tablets,

laptops, and desktops. Instant connectivity is what is great about social networks, unfortunately

there is also bad that lurks on social networks as well and that is social media harassment.

This creative project presents the research question: Should social networks enforce more

strict rules regarding social media harassment? This project will discuss cyberbullying and the

responsibility that comes with cyberbullying. Through the help of four well-crafted interviews

with five professionals who speak on cyberbullying on a daily basis, it is without a doubt that

cyberbullying is starting to become a hot topic for internet users everywhere. When it comes to

online harassment, who is really responsible? The social network or the individual?

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents iiSenior Project title 4

Statement of the Problem 4Significance 4Scope and Limitation 5Methodology 5

What Others Have Said 8 Review of the Literature 8The Creative Project 11

#HiddenBullies: #Narrative 11Story Outline 12Script 13Supplemental Information 17

Conclusion 19Summary 19Findings 19Future Research 21

References 23

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CHAPTER I: Social Media Harassment: “R U esafe”?

Type of Project: In-depth Mini-Documentary

Subject: “Social Media Harassment: Can it be curbed?”

Research Question: Should Social Networks Enforce More Strict Regulations for Social Media

Harassment?

Statement of the Problem

The internet is currently a free for all for everyone to say anything that comes to mind.

Though it is great to have freedom of speech in an online space, there is the potential for certain

users to go too far with their comments when speaking to others. This brings up the problem of

online harassment on social media websites. According to the Pew Research Center, 73% of

internet users have witnessed online harassment while 40% have personally experienced it. The

most common types of harassment were listed as offensive name calling and purposeful

embarrassment. The number of internet users who witness and experienced this can only grow as

social networks continue to neglect creating strict regulations that will help curb online

harassment.

Significance

This project is significant because there doesn’t seem to be any type of aggressive

regulation present when harassment is witnessed online. There are other that projects that touch

on social media harassment, but the focus is mainly on what to do when a victim is being

harassed online. My project will tackle the idea of social networks enforcing more regulations on

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their respective networks. The social networks cannot control the actions of their users but they

can definitely discipline them when the rules are broken. Hopefully this project will add to the

growing awareness of social media harassment and what could be done on both sides of the

issue, the social network’s side and the victim’s side. Maeve Duggan, a research assistant for the

Pew Research Center, helped put together a very detailed report about social media harassment.

The report revealed just how prevalent online harassment is, stating that 45% of users have

experienced threats, stalking, and sexual harassment (pewinternet.org). Pew Research Center

acknowledges that harassment seems to be a common part of online life for nearly every user

online.

Scope and Limitations of Project

This project answers the research question: Should Social Networks Enforce More Strict

Regulations for Social Media Harassment? There will be a slightly different perspective

presented with this project as well. Instead of focusing on the victims that are harassed on social

networks, this project will instead focus on harassment policies on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

and other networks. There are many forms of harassment that one can deal with on a social

network, but this project in particular will deal with the topic of cyberbullying. A brief look at

some of the psychological effects of cyberbullying will also be discussed. Since I want the focus

of this project to be about college and high school students in the United States, I decided to set

the age bracket to 14-22 years old.

Methodology and Organization Pattern

This creative research project that inquires if social networks should enforced stricter

regulations for social media harassment is being analyzed and addressed through a long form

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mini-documentary. Since this project discusses the law, the theory of critical legal studies will

be used. The mini-documentary will have various interviews from professionals who write and

speak on cyberbullying in public actively. I will also be using a Qualitative research method,

some of the questions asked include: Is it the social network’s responsibility to enforce rules

regarding cyberbullying? Is Cyberbullying protected by the first amendment? Do you feel social

networks should start policing their sites more aggressively?

Chapter One: An Introduction to Social Media Harassment will give the reader an overview of

social media harassment and its effect on victims. A small collection of social networks that deal

with harassment online will be examined as the paper moves forward. This will open up the

question as to whether social networks are responsible with what’s posted on their respective

social networks. Incidents of harassment online will detail the seriousness of the issue of cyber

bullying. The chapter will conclude with the question as to whether social networks should be

held responsible for harassment online. If so, should there be stricter regulations enforced

regarding harassment online. This will pose the research question: Should social networks

enforce stricter regulations regarding social media harassment? From there I will discuss why

they should enforce more strict regulations.

Chapter Two: Literature Review will examine the views of professionals and scholars who have

different opinions of online harassment. Different research will be presented to show harassment

in many different online spaces. This will lead to the discussion of Facebook and its policies

regarding harassment online. Chief Executive Officers and company representatives’ interviews

will be pitted against each other to review whether there’s an overall opinion on responsibility

for harassment online.

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Chapter Three: The Mini – Documentary will present my documentary on paper. The

documentary will feature interviews with professionals who studies cyberbullying actively. The

information presented will have brief backgrounds of the people I interviewed, the questions

used, and why the questions and people were used. I will write out some of my findings

regarding cyber bullying on social media and its effects on the individuals involved. There will

also be details about how the project was developed and how long it took to execute it. Finally,

this chapter will conclude with the technical details of the project, including what equipment was

used and what software was used to edit it.

Chapter Four: Conclusion will provide a summary of what the paper was about. It will also

review research already provided in the paper. My findings along with the interviews conducted

will help provide a personal opinion on the topic. The paper will finally discuss the idea of future

research regarding social media harassment since this is a topic that will not die off anytime

soon.

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CHAPTER II: What Others Have Said

Social networks have changed the way we communicate forever. The ability to reconnect

and network benefits millions of users on a daily basis. Unfortunately there is a dark side to

social media as well, and that is social media harassment. It appears to be growing problem as

well according to recent studies. The Pew Research Center reports that “Fully 73% of adult

internet users have seen someone harassed in some way online. (Duggan, “Online Harassment”)”

Social Networks, due to their ease and convenience for anyone to join can be the opposite of a

safe haven when it comes to harassment online.

Maeve Duggan, a research assistant for the Pew Research Center, reports that Forty

percent of users online have personally experienced a type of online harassment (Duggan,

“Online Harassment”). The survey continues to report that men are most likely to experience

being called offensive names, while women are more likely to experience being stalked. Twenty-

Four percent of younger users, the ages of 18-24, have received physical threats.

Since there are many forms of Social Media Harassment, the focus of this research will

be on cyberbullying. Though there is no unique definition for cyberbullying, Robert Tokunaga

defines it clearly as “…any behavior performed through electronic or digital media by

individuals or groups that repeatedly communicates hostile or aggressive messages intended to

inflict harm or discomfort on others (Tokunaga, 278).”

There could be a variety of reasons why anyone might bully another online. Elizabeth

Englander, director of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center and author of Bullying

and Cyberbullying: What Every Educator Needs to Know, explains that the digital environments

tends to disinhibit people. “When you’re speaking to someone in person, you are less likely to be

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rude or aggressive because you can see their face and reactions. When you’re in a digital

environment, you lack those ‘brakes’ and so are more likely to be extreme in your reactions

(Englander, “Harassment Versus Free Speech: The Blurred Lines of Social Media”).” One has

to wonder why the lack of face- to- face interaction could lead to users of social media to say

heartless things about each other. All fifty states have anti-bullying laws in place, twenty-two of

those fifty cover cyberbullying. Are the laws really that effective? Is it possible that these laws

being too strict might lead to an issue with Freedom of Speech? Scott Lambert writes, “The

problem with cyberbullying laws is the line must be drawn between free speech and bullying.

The internet has opened speech up to new arenas while also providing a new venue for young

people to express themselves (Lambert 17).” The current anti-bullying laws also seem to only

cover young people from kinder garden to high school, how about college students and adults?

One also has to wonder who is really responsible in the end when someone is cyberbullied to the

point that it becomes a serious issue.

Lindy West, a writer for GQ Magazine, experienced a very cruel form of cyberbullying

when a user created an account of her deceased father which was used to torment her on twitter.

West wrote about her experience in The Guardian, “Sometimes the hate trickles in slowly, just

one or two messages a day. But other times, when I’ve written something particularly

controversial (i.e., feminist) – like, say, my critique of men feeling entitled to women’s time and

attention, or literally anything about rape – the harassment comes in a deluge. It floods my

Twitter feed, my Facebook page, my email, so fast that I can’t even keep up (not that I want to)

(West, What Happened When I Confronted My Cruelest Troll)” West continues, “It was in the

middle of one of these deluges two summers ago when my dead father contacted me on

Twitter…. Someone – bored, apparently, with the usual angles of harassment – had made a fake

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Twitter account purporting to be my dead dad, featuring a stolen, beloved photo of him, for no

reason other than to hurt me. The name on the account was “PawWestDonezo”, because my

father’s name was Paul West, and a difficult battle with prostate cancer had rendered him

“donezo” (goofy slang for “done”) just 18 months earlier. “Embarrassed father of an idiot,” the

bio read. “Other two kids are fine, though. “His location was ‘Dirt hole in Seattle (The

Guardian).”

Should the social networks be responsible for removing the user who created an account

of West’s dead father? In an interview with PBS MediaShift Maeve Duggan explains that “The

law of the land is that websites aren’t responsible for what people post on their sites, in terms of

interacting with the website and trying to use it as a resource.” Dick Costolo, the Chief Executive

Officer of Twitter disagrees stating: “We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform

and we’ve sucked at it for years. It’s no secret and the rest of the world talks about it every day.

We lose core user after core user by not addressing simple trolling issues that they face every

day. (The Verge).” This is a direct response to Lindy West’s experience as noted in The

Guardian when an employee showed the Dick Costolo an article describing the incident.

Perhaps, this is what needed as social networks continues to grow. Leaders such as Dick Costolo

stepping up should help remove anyone who violates the company’s harassment policy.

Removing such users should help promote a healthy online environment which is very

much needed in society today. Though one might argue that there might be a revision needed in

current laws to help prevent cyberbullying from becoming too much of a serious issue. Perhaps,

maybe the issues could be linked to the individuals who bully on the social network.

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CHAPTER III: The Creative Project

#HiddenBullies: #Narrative

This creative project is a 12-minute mini-documentary. I felt a documentary would be the

best way to explore the world of cyberbullying on social networks. This also gives me a chance

to offer a visual way to discuss whether social networks should enforce more strict rules for their

websites. A research paper would have been great as well, but a visual project gives me a chance

for me to think of creative ways to answer the research question.

The planning process of this was relatively simple. After thinking about it, I decided to

take the project beyond Nashville when looking for potential interviewees. Rather than doing

things with the traditional on camera set-up, I decided to use Google Hangout to conduct my

interviews. Since Google Plus is a social network that uses Google Hangout as its platform for

video calls, I thought it made perfect since. I did not want to deal with installing a screen

recorder to record my calls so I found webinar software that works inside of my web browser

instead. This also made the process easier when it came to conducting the interviews. All I had to

do was send a webinar link for the interviewee to click on to join the private webinar.

Using Google, I found plenty of people I could talk to about this subject. I’m not sure of

the final number of people I actually contacted, but it was most likely in the 150 range.

Unfortunately only a quarter of everyone I contacted, responded back. Also, due to a scheduling

conflicts, only a small percentage of people had time to sit down and do an interview. There was

also a couple of people who agreed to do an interview and neglected to respond back to e-mails

when asked for interview times which dwindle my number of interviews even more. The end

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result lead to four very well crafted interviews that really helped when answering the research

question.

I ended up scheduling interviews with Deborah Gonzalez, who discusses social media

rules and bullying laws on her website Law2sm.com; Jennifer Perry, Chief Executive Officer

Digital Trust; Dr. Valerie Mason-John who visits schools to discuss anti-bullying and Shelia

Mae, a blogger who publishes information about cyberbullying. Overall, I really enjoyed

conducting these interviews and was really happy that everyone was cooperative with my

project.

The editing process was pretty straight forward. I started by just watching the videos

itself. This helped me craft a vision of the documentary in my head. After thinking about it for a

couple of days I went right to work. I opened up Adobe Premiere and laid out all the clips I know

I’m going to use on my timeline. From there I started piecing everything together using the razor

tool to help overlap one interview to the next.

After piecing together my documentary I begin adding b-roll. I used google to help find

free stock video and photos to help add to the documentary rather than distract from it. I also

decided to add some statistics about cyberbullying throughout the documentary to help fill it out.

I then exported to Adobe Media Encoder in High Definition.

The final step of this process of course is to upload my work to YouTube. From there, a

link to my work was placed in my electronic portfolio. I will also post a link to my work on

various social media outlets as well.

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Story Outline

I. Introduction

A. This is the beginning where I introduced cyberbullying

II. The What and Why of Cyberbullying

B. This section discuss why users of social networks cyberbully

III. Reporting on Facebook and Twitter

C. This section discuss reporting on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and

whether the rules should be stricter.

IV. Who’s Responsible and What Social Networks are doing for their users

D. The final section discusses responsibility in regards to cyberbullying

Script

To be added

Supplemental Information

Here’s a sample of the e-mails I sent to potential interviewees:

Good Morning,

I'm currently a senior in Communications at Tennessee State University. I'm working on a

documentary in my Senior Project course about cyber bullying.

I notice you wrote a book on cyber law and work with schools to discuss cyber bullying. Would

you be interested in being interviewed for my documentary via a Google Hangout?

If so please let me know so we can arrange that. I would love to hear your opinions on this issue.

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Thanks,

Jacque

615-720-4032

Chapter IV: Conclusion

Summary

The goal of this project was to assist with the answer of my research question: Should

social networks enforce more strict rules regarding social media harassment? I interviewed

different speakers of cyberbullying to help answer my question.

As noted in the review of literature, cyberbullying is starting to become a hot topic in the

lives of young people everywhere. Even adults are not safe from cyberbullying. Some might

wonder if simply blocking one is enough. I believe the lines can be blurred when looking at

responsibility in certain cases.

My project mirrors the literature review when discussing cyberbullying and where it

stands on social media. I also use the literature to help write the other parts of my paper such as

the statement of the problem, the scope and limitations, the significance and purpose along with

the methodology of my project. Answering the research question requires looking at United

States law and how it effects the social network’s rules. Something that helps my project stands

out is the fact that I looked at cyberbullying from more than one angle. There is the experience of

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cyberbullying, the psychology of cyberbullying, and the rules that affects cyberbullying. The end

results creates a very well balance project on social media harassment.

The creative project itself answers the research question with the help of different

scholars who discuss cyberbullying publically on a daily basis. It all comes down to the law at

the end of the day and my findings reflect that completely.

Findings

I am very happy with my findings in this creative project. A mini-documentary was the

best way to go since it allowed me to find people who study cyberbullying on social networks

daily. It also allowed me to interview different victims who were cyberbullied and bullied in

general. Dr. Valerie Mason-John, who was bullied growing up discussed some of the differences

between bullying and cyberbullying bringing up the fact that bullying is repetitive in nature

while cyberbullying can only be done once giving a greater effect since anything posted online is

posted forever.

It was interesting hearing first-hand the experiences of Shelia Mae (23), who was

cyberbullied on Myspace several years ago. One could say that Shelia could have been one of the

first cyberbullied victims on a social network since Myspace was one of the first social networks

to gain popularity before Facebook took over. She also shared some of the experiences of her

friends who were cyberbullied but it was cut from the documentary due to time. Out of the 4

interviewees Sheila was the only one who felt the social networks should enforce more strict

regulations regarding social media harassment. It is best to note that Shelia experienced

cyberbullying first hand, so her perspective on the issue is little different.

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I have to personally side with the three other interviewees. Social networks should not

create more strict rules for their websites, the reason being that the rules are not necessary the

problem when it comes to cyberbullying. It is the way each individual social network enforce

their rules. It also falls on each party as well, the person being bullied, the person doing the

bullying, the person or persons who see the bullying occur and of course whoever monitors the

social network. Dr. John also bought up the fact that we all share a responsibility regarding what

is posted on these social networks. I agree, though Section 230 of the Communications Decency

Act seem to throw any responsibly on the social network out the window.

Originally passed in 1996, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects

websites, blogs, and social networks from liability of what is posted on their websites. The law is

the law and there doesn’t seem to be any sign of change anytime soon so I guess for now it we

just have to accept it. Though I cannot help but wonder if social networks indirectly enable

cyberbullying because they are protected by this act. It is also best to note that if this act was not

passed than the internet would be an entirely different place and social networks probably would

not exist, so it is a gift and a curse. Social networks in general was not created for cyberbullying,

it was created to connect, network and educate its users. The bad side of social networks which

includes cyberbullying surely was not thought about in the development of these sites. Maybe

the act of cyberbullying was thought about and the social networks opted to create a passive

system that perceives that something is being done about it to attract more users.

Linda Perry, Chief Executive Officer of Digital-Trust.org, an organization that helps its

clients protect themselves online in regards to privacy, talked about some of the privacy issues

with Facebook in particular. She read a report that discussed the difference between Facebook in

2005 and 2014. In 2005, 95% of Facebook user’s information was private by default, in 2014

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95% of user’s information were open by default. This lead to an interesting conversation about

how Facebook’s policies, services and features exposes their users which could lead to

victimization. It seems as if the social networks are protected by a dangerous environment that

they created.

One of my favorite interview was with Deborah Gonzales, a lawyer who currently

practices law in Georgia and travels the country to discuss social networks and the law. She

pretty much provided me with the answer to the research question. Ironically, it was also the first

interview that I conducted. A major factor in the answer to the research question was the topic of

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. It reads: “No provider or user of an interactive

computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by

another information content provider (eff.org).” Since social networks hosts the content that their

user’s post, then they cannot be held accountable for it. Something that is bad about this act is

that allows cyberbullying to exist. Something that great about this act is that it allows for

Freedom of Speech in an online world. Though this also could be the reason why the United

States government is trying to regulate the internet in general now, but that is a completely

different story.

Ms. Gonzalez concluded that social networks are actually not obligated to enforce

anything. One of the things she also noted was the fact that if social networks was to police

everything that goes on their website then Freedom of Speech can seriously be violated. She

briefly discuss some of things that social networks do to help its users against bullies online such

as Facebook’s report system and bully prevention hub. One last thing that was noted was that

social networks all across the board most likely do this, even though they are not legally

obligated.

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Further Research

Section 230 of the Communications Decency served as a major decision in answering the

research question. Though as discussed with Jennifer Perry and Shelia Mae, the way the

networks might handle reporting could be better taken care of in regards to harassment. Another

potential research question could revolve around the way these social networks handle reporting.

In Facebook’s defense, the company is a world-wide brand, and there might be more important

things for them to worry about than cyberbullying. Not to mention the possibility of monitoring

their networks on a daily basis world-wide could take a ton of resources, so perhaps section 230

is a gift for the social networks since they are not obligated anyway but a curse to the victims

who are cyberbullied.

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Works Cited

COOK, GLENN. "Harassment versus Free Speech: The Blurred Lines of Social Media.

Education Update 56.5 (2014): 1-5. Education Source. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.

Duggan, Maeve. “Social Media Harassment.” Pew Research Center. 22, October. 2014. Web. 20,

February. 2015

Lambert, Scott. “Cyberbullying ties schools, students in legal knots.” Gateway Journalism

Review. 2014. 17.

Tiku, Nitasha. “Twitter CEO: ‘We Suck at dealing with abuse.’” The Verge. 4, Feb. 2015.

Web. 20 Feb. 2015.

Tokunaga, Robert. Following you home from school: A critical review and synthesis of research

on cyberbullying victimization. Computers in Human Behavior. 2010, 26, 277-278.

West, Lindy. “What Happened When I Confronted My Cruelest Troll” The Guardian.

2 Feb. 2015. Web. 20 Feb. 2015

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Creative Project Link: #HiddenBullies