ABSTRACT
In 2010, photographs of Virginia congressional candidate Krystal Ball surfaced from a party at which she appeared dressed in a marginally risque costume. She lost the race, and there was speculation that the minor scandal around the photographs played a role. As she recently recounted to journalist Kashmir Hill, she assumed at the time that situations like hers would later appear a “temporary blip before society adjusted and ‘people would grow more accepting’ of photos and problematic comments from the past.” 1 Eleven years later, Ball, now the co-host of The Hill’s morning talk show “Rising,” has instead concluded that “‘[i]t’s the polar opposite…[i]t’s more reactionary and judgmental than it’s ever been.’” Indeed, a debate about so-called “cancel culture” 2 rages as of this writing in 2021, and we have witnessed a proliferation of stories like that of Emily Wilder, who was fired from the Associated Press in 2021 after photographs and social media posts from her pro-Palestinian activism during college surfaced. 3 It seems safe to say, then, that cultural, technical, and legal questions surrounding the management of digital reputational information are more urgent than ever.
