ABSTRACT
Social media has an ambivalent place in public discourse. Over the last 10 years, it’s been heralded as the augur of a new ethos of ‘sharing’ and sociality, trivialised as the playground of children and adolescents, demonised as the tool of paedophiles and terrorists, and credited with the overthrow of tyranny and revitalisation of political dialogue. This kaleidoscope of competing images is testament to the far-reaching implications of new media technologies, not the least of which is the challenge that it poses to established media interests. The rise of social media and an increasingly technology-savvy citizenry has undermined the business model of newspapers and television in particular. This has led to major falls in revenue as ‘old’ media reorientates itself, somewhat reluctantly, within a new technological landscape. Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that ‘old’ media has enthusiastically disseminated stories about the apparent threats the social media poses to social order and safety. ‘Sexting’, ‘revenge porn’, cyber-bullying, cyber-harassment, and online child exploitation are now familiar examples of the pitfalls of social media. However, populist presentations of online abuse as a new and pressing threat to children and young people can obscure the intersection of new technology with existing patterns of abuse and violence. Online abuse is underpinned by entrenched power
differentials on the basis of gender, age and other factors, and ‘crosses over’ with ‘offline’ harms such as domestic violence, bullying and sexual harassment. Social media has come to saturate social life to such an extent that the distinction between ‘online’ and ‘offline’ abuse has become increasingly obsolete, requiring a nuanced understanding of the role of new media technologies in abuse, crime and justice responses. The aim of this chapter is to provide a critical overview of the history
of online abuse on social media and to propose a critical theory of online abuse that situates new technology within the power relations that shape its development and deployment. The chapter challenges the focus of public debate on the sexual victimisation of children by strangers on social media and foregrounds the ways in which online abuse has changed with the rise of social media platforms. Crucial to this discussion is the status of social media as a network of corporate platforms that profit from the commodification of user data. Communication on social media is induced by software architecture that actively encourages the publication and circulation of private, emotive or provocative material that drives market share and revenue. It is within the tension between communication and commodification that online abuse takes shape and meaning, and exerts its impacts on users and public debate. Avoiding simple dichotomies, the chapter recognises that social media can host meaningful interpersonal and political dialogue; however, the dynamics of commodification can encourage an instrumental attitude amongst users that is conducive to abuse and exploitation. The chapter draws on the traditions of critical theory to interrogate the place of online abuse within the forms of sociability enabled by social media, and the implications of social media for the circulation of claims of crime and injustice.
