The Kathy Sierra controversy has reached a loud roar in the blogosphere, with people shouting back and forth at each other about whether she was right to be afraid, whether she was right to name names, whether she was right to name names and be afraid in the same post, about whether free speech is being squelched in the name of polite discourse, about whether the threats made against her were really threats or ‘just juvenile behavior’, anonymity, internet culture, and whether her post was just as mean as the ones posted on MeanKids.
I’m really tired of seeing the threats she referred to in her post dismissed as “juvenile behavior”, as if that somehow makes them less real or less visceral. Let’s be clear: Posting “i hope someone slits your throat…” is a threat. So is the reference to “beating the bitch with a bat...”. Period. Denise calls the posts at MeanKids and BobsYerUncle bullying, manipulation, attack and hatred which is an accurate description. I feel the same way Liz Henry does – it makes me angrier and angrier every time I think about it. Yet, there are some who seem to think it’s just “juvenile behavior”, as if juvenile behavior hasn’t been responsible for over half the stupid laws we have governing the Internet or threatening to govern the Internet.
To those who say it was ‘juvenile behavior’ and get over it, I say no. I’m done with the “ignore them and they’ll go away attitude” and I’m tired of everyone forgetting about all those laws made For The Children Because They Behave Like Juveniles and Endanger Themselves. “Get over it” is just a cop-out to excuse the site creators from responsibility for hatching an idea that was destined to go out of control from the beginning.
Now that all four of the people named in Sierra’s original post have denied any participation in the posting of the garbage on those two sites (and one may be the victim of a hacker), Liz Ditz asks the right question: Even if you didn’t post it, why didn’t you call it for what it was? (What it was would be racist, misogynist, cruel and psychotic).
…where were the voices that said, “Dude (or dudette): you have gone too far.”
Andy Carvin has declared March 30th to be “Stop Cyberbullying Day“.
What does it mean? I leave that up to you. Generally, though, I think we should all set aside some time that day to address cyberbullying. Write a blog post pointing to online resources about cyberbullying. Post a podcast about personal experiences. Create your own public service announcement about the dangers of cyberbullying and post it on YouTube. Then tag it with the phrase stopcyberbullying.
Let’s take this out of the context of one person and put it into the larger and longer-lasting context. It’s time to stop shrugging and assume that this “goes with the territory” or should simply be dismissed. It’s time to start actually defining what it means to be self-regulating. When people say that the blogosphere is self-correcting, it shouldn’t have to make that correction after it’s turned to critical mass.
Resources:
- Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use
- Stop Cyberbullying Network
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the Internet Wiki
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