Public shaming is one of the bad aspects of the Internet and it needs to be discouraged.
Today, most of us will squeeze our faces in
disgust watching a mob on a street execute a petty thief with tyres,
petrol and fire. The reaction would be swift and universal, “this is barbaric!”
On
social media though, our reactions will be different. Not only will we
most likely glee with delight at the sight of someone being ‘dragged’ or
‘trolled’, but we also would likely participate.
The debate with public shaming on the Internet
or outrage on social media is how far a mob or a group of people who
see themselves as the ‘morally right’ will go in addressing aberrant
behaviour.
Take, for example, the gist that was the talk
of multiple timelines on Christmas Day, 2018. A popular lady on Twitter
was called out for allegedly selling sub-standard wigs to some of her
clients.
Fair enough, if this allegation is true, then
there was nothing wrong in addressing this bad behavior, which
ultimately aims to make people do better.
The mob did more than that with its
‘righteous’ outrage as it dragged her for slay photos, fashion sense and
erroneously connected it with her line of business. Some details about
her personal life also made it to Twitter, which had no correlation with
the issue at hand.
It later morphed into an ugly personal attack which led her to deleting her Twitter account briefly.
Let me give you another example. In December 2018, a video of DMW act Peruzzi and a young lady in bed leaked online.
The lady who was with Peruzzi in the video became a victim of the Internet mob (Instagram/Peruzzi)
The video did the rounds, and quickly enough
the personal details of the young woman in the video were revealed. The
act which is known as doxxing revealed her details with malicious intent
to shame her for her sexual lifestyle.
There was nothing wrong with the lady in the
video being sexually involved with a popular music act. The only thing
she was guilty of is recording him without his consent. This is what the mob should have focused on and not shame her for her lifestyle.
Mob justice is more or less the bullying of
people and shaming them which has nothing to do with responding and
correcting bad behavior.
The mob parades itself as a gathering of the
morally righteous which uses outrage as a battering ram to publicly
shame targets who have come in their cross hairs. The mob feeds off
outrage, a perceived slight, that fuels it in carrying out public shame
on the Internet.
The problem with outrage is that if unchecked,
it consumes everything. Outrage in the hands of a mob is usually a
weapon of destruction and not a weapon of justice.
With most cases of public shaming in the
digital era, there is no middle ground. The irate mob is the judge, jury
and executioner. It gives no room for apologies, context and second
chances. It is unforgiving, and this should be a cause for concern.
The funny thing about social media is that it
shrinks us into pixels of our avatars. This is what the mob sees when it
is outraged, a digital lampoon of whoever they want they want to
publicly shame.
It pummels, drags, trolls and blasts its
victim not caring about emotions and feelings. It does not care about
remorse. All it knows is to cancel and delete your standing in the
digital community.
In the heat of its outrage, members of the
righteous mob, the cancellers of anyone who they find annoying, tend to
be mental abusers. Excessive bashing can affect mental health as we must
have seen with the lady caught up in the wig drama.
Public correction, not public shaming should
be the answer. We shouldn’t be silent in correcting wrong behavior but
we shouldn’t ridicule or shame. It serves no purpose other than to leave
people vulnerable to malicious attacks from people with their own
shortcomings.
Cancel culture and Internet shaming has cost
people their jobs, livelihood and reputation. A digital stain is harder
to wipe off than a verbal insult. People who have been victims of the
mob find it hard to get back to their normal lives online.
The conversation should be how can we make
erring people behave better and realize their makes and not destroy who
they are. Public shaming in the digital age is similar to jungle
justice.
If it is wrong to kill suspected criminals
instead of allowing justice prevail while leaving room for reform, it is
also wrong when a mob does the same on a social platform.
There are exceptions though. Death sentences
are reserved for criminals who have committed heinous crimes, public
shaming should also be reserved for individuals who have shown no
remorse for their distasteful acts over time.
Unfortunately, most of the people the righteous mob have shamed did not warrant the pariah treatment or total obliteration.
It’s time we do away with public shaming on the Internet.