Online Shaming: When Campaign Turns Slander

Snyopsis: Abraham pointed out to when the city-based Blank Noise project encouraged women to upload snapshots of their 'harassers' but were forced to blur the images.

BENGALURU: Two recent events Monica Lewinsky's TED Talk about her online shaming and Welsh writer Jon Ronson's upcoming book 'So You've Been Publicly Shamed' have brought 'shaming' to the crux of global cyberspace debates. Closer home, Bengaluru's techsavvy citizens have made shaming their most powerful tool outraged digital mobs ridiculed police commissioner MN Reddi for saying bureaucrat DK Ravi's death by hanging appeared to be a case of suicide; the city also saw the launch of the local chapter of the 'Shame the Rapist' campaign recently triggering dialogue on where the line is be tween slander and shaming for good.

Sunil Abraham, executive director, The Centre for Internet & Society, Bengaluru, believes that while shaming a corporation, government departments or public offices can result in moral justice, caution is imperative. "Online mobs have the power to interfere with the natural course of justice and to influence law enforcement just with sheer pressure," he said.

Also, good intentions can go awry online. Abraham pointed out to when the city-based Blank Noise project encouraged women to upload snapshots of their 'harassers' but were forced to blur the images after massive commentary countering their means of shaming.

"While it is important to bring a perpetrator to book, it will backfire without context. We should not end up shaming innocents for no fault of theirs," he said, adding that shaming has scared many people, especially women, off the internet, leading to a loss of productive digital contributions.

Shaming turns to slander only if done with vested interests, argued activist Geeta Menon, at the forefront of the Bengaluru chapter of the 'Shame The Rapist' campaign, which uses public shaming to exert pressure on law enforcement into taking action.

"Why is this question of slander never raised when the victim's identity is revealed or she is wrongly insinuated?" said Menon, when asked about the repercussions of publicly shaming someone before legal conviction. "While we never jump into a case randomly, we will always be on the side of the victim. Rape is unpardonable."

Lawrence Liang of the Alternative Law Forum said that shaming, the most ancient form of lowering self-perception, has had disastrous consequences online.

"Rapid technological participation has come without knowledge of communication ethos," he said. "Shaming is sometimes more powerful than legal sanctioning. For instance, the defence counsels making sexist statements in the 'India's Daughter' documentary deserved to be shamed."

"There is no societal line that can be drawn," Liang said. "We have to draw the lines for ourselves and have self-reflection before posting something online. Otherwise, we would force government agencies to step up in future."