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Title: Online Harassment: Assessing Harms and Remedies
Online harassment refers to a wide range of harmful behaviors, including hate speech, insults, doxxing, and non-consensual image sharing. Social media platforms have developed complex processes to try to detect and manage content that may violate community guidelines; however, less work has examined the types of harms associated with online harassment or preferred remedies to that harassment. We conducted three online surveys with US adult Internet users measuring perceived harms and preferred remedies associated with online harassment. Study 1 found greater perceived harm associated with non-consensual photo sharing, doxxing, and reputational damage compared to other types of harassment. Study 2 found greater perceived harm with repeated harassment compared to one-time harassment, but no difference between individual and group harassment. Study 3 found variance in remedy preferences by harassment type; for example, banning users is rated highly in general, but is rated lower for non-consensual photo sharing and doxxing compared to harassing family and friends and damaging reputation. Our findings highlight that remedies should be responsive to harassment type and potential for harm. Remedies are also not necessarily correlated with harassment severity—expanding remedies may allow for more contextually appropriate and effective responses to harassment.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1763297 1552503
NSF-PAR ID:
10417768
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Social Media + Society
Volume:
9
Issue:
1
ISSN:
2056-3051
Page Range / eLocation ID:
205630512311572
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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