WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.620 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are unpacking 00:00:02.620 --> 00:00:06.599 a topic that I think culturally we have miscategorized 00:00:06.599 --> 00:00:09.640 for what, about two decades now? At least. We 00:00:09.640 --> 00:00:12.140 tend to file cyberbullying way in this mental 00:00:12.140 --> 00:00:14.779 drawer that's just labeled high school problems, 00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:18.160 you know, right alongside prom drama and detention. 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:21.039 But looking at the stack of research we have 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:23.800 for today, that feels like a, I don't know, a 00:00:23.800 --> 00:00:26.879 dangerous oversimplification. It really is. We're 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:30.000 looking at a phenomenon that has, I mean, It's 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:33.090 essentially industrialized harassment. It's weaponized 00:00:33.090 --> 00:00:36.030 algorithms. It's created this massive legal gray 00:00:36.030 --> 00:00:38.670 zone that affects everyone, right? From the 14 00:00:38.670 --> 00:00:40.929 -year -old gamer all the way up to the 45 -year 00:00:40.929 --> 00:00:43.149 -old doctor. Absolutely. It is definitely not 00:00:43.149 --> 00:00:45.549 just a schoolyard issue anymore if it ever really 00:00:45.549 --> 00:00:47.729 was. Right. I mean, when you look at the trajectory 00:00:47.729 --> 00:00:51.090 from the early 2000s to now, we aren't just seeing 00:00:51.090 --> 00:00:53.750 an increase in volume. We're seeing a fundamental 00:00:53.750 --> 00:00:55.670 shift in the nature of the direction itself. 00:00:56.109 --> 00:00:58.450 How so? Well, the iSafe Foundation data from 00:00:58.450 --> 00:01:00.890 2015, which, you know, by Internet standards, 00:01:00.950 --> 00:01:03.070 that's... practically ancient history, but it's 00:01:03.070 --> 00:01:05.469 still our baseline. Sure. It showed that over 00:01:05.469 --> 00:01:08.450 50 % of adolescents had been bullied online. 00:01:09.430 --> 00:01:12.290 But the stat that always, always jumps out at 00:01:12.290 --> 00:01:15.109 me is the parity. The parity? Yeah, that nearly 00:01:15.109 --> 00:01:17.730 the same number had engaged in it. Wow. Which 00:01:17.730 --> 00:01:19.950 suggests this isn't a simple case of like... 00:01:20.200 --> 00:01:22.319 predators and prey. Exactly. It's more of an 00:01:22.319 --> 00:01:25.019 ecosystem where the roles are fluid. You can 00:01:25.019 --> 00:01:27.099 be the victim on Tuesday and the aggressor on 00:01:27.099 --> 00:01:30.200 Wednesday. And that ubiquity, that fluidity makes 00:01:30.200 --> 00:01:32.480 defining it actually pretty difficult. I know 00:01:32.480 --> 00:01:35.719 in the legal world and in sociology, there's 00:01:35.719 --> 00:01:38.620 a lot of friction between what constitutes just 00:01:38.620 --> 00:01:41.819 being mean and what constitutes actual bullying. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:43.719 That's the first hurdle, isn't it? Because if 00:01:43.719 --> 00:01:45.519 you're going to legislate it or study it, you 00:01:45.519 --> 00:01:47.700 have to know what it is. That's it. And if we 00:01:47.700 --> 00:01:50.319 use the academic definition, cyberbullying requires 00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:54.019 three very specific components. Aggression, repetition, 00:01:54.340 --> 00:01:57.040 and a power imbalance. Okay, aggression and repetition 00:01:57.040 --> 00:01:59.459 I get. But that third one, power imbalance, that 00:01:59.459 --> 00:02:01.180 seems like it would get really tricky online. 00:02:01.599 --> 00:02:04.859 It's the trickiest part. In a physical school 00:02:04.859 --> 00:02:08.460 hallway, power is usually obvious. It's physical 00:02:08.460 --> 00:02:12.150 size. It's... Social status, you know, popularity. 00:02:12.490 --> 00:02:14.469 The captain of the football team versus the kid 00:02:14.469 --> 00:02:18.270 from the AV club. A classic example. But online, 00:02:18.590 --> 00:02:21.889 power is anonymity. Power is technical skill. 00:02:22.229 --> 00:02:24.889 Power is having a bigger folder of screenshots 00:02:24.889 --> 00:02:27.750 than the other person. The dynamics are completely 00:02:27.750 --> 00:02:29.789 different. Right. And we have to distinguish 00:02:29.789 --> 00:02:32.090 that from just a flame war, which I think a lot 00:02:32.090 --> 00:02:34.669 of people confuse with bullying. 100%. If I get 00:02:34.669 --> 00:02:36.870 into an argument with someone on ex -formally 00:02:36.870 --> 00:02:39.969 Twitter and we're just, you know, trading insults, 00:02:39.969 --> 00:02:43.729 that's conflict. It's toxic maybe, but it's peer 00:02:43.729 --> 00:02:46.409 to peer. Yes. Both parties have a roughly equal 00:02:46.409 --> 00:02:50.009 ability to disengage or to fight back. Bullying, 00:02:50.009 --> 00:02:52.629 then, implies that the victim has lost the agency 00:02:52.629 --> 00:02:55.330 to stop it. They're trapped. That's the core 00:02:55.330 --> 00:02:59.000 of it. Conflict is a negotiation of power. Bullying 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:01.439 is the abuse of it. But, and this is a really 00:03:01.439 --> 00:03:03.539 critical insight from the researcher Dana Boyd, 00:03:03.560 --> 00:03:06.259 if you talk to teenagers, they almost never use 00:03:06.259 --> 00:03:07.719 the word bullying. Oh, that's interesting. What 00:03:07.719 --> 00:03:09.939 do they call it? They call it drama. To them, 00:03:10.120 --> 00:03:13.259 bullying is a childish term. It's what happens 00:03:13.259 --> 00:03:15.879 to little kids on the playground. They classify 00:03:15.879 --> 00:03:17.919 almost everything we're talking about today as 00:03:17.919 --> 00:03:20.879 drama. I found Boyd's analysis on this fascinating 00:03:20.879 --> 00:03:23.860 because drama feels like such a minimizing word, 00:03:23.939 --> 00:03:25.919 doesn't it? It does. It implies entertainment. 00:03:26.280 --> 00:03:28.879 It implies that everyone involved is kind of 00:03:28.879 --> 00:03:31.960 a willing participant in a performance for an 00:03:31.960 --> 00:03:34.219 audience. And that is precisely the function 00:03:34.219 --> 00:03:37.840 of the word. By calling it drama, teens reclaim 00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:41.240 a sense of agency. It's a coping mechanism. So 00:03:41.240 --> 00:03:43.580 it's not I'm a victim of abuse. It's I'm just 00:03:43.580 --> 00:03:46.939 caught up in some drama. Exactly. It normalizes 00:03:46.939 --> 00:03:50.069 the violence. It frames what is essentially psychological 00:03:50.069 --> 00:03:53.389 warfare as just a feature of the social landscape, 00:03:53.430 --> 00:03:57.129 like bad weather or a pop quiz. But that linguistic 00:03:57.129 --> 00:03:59.229 shift, it doesn't change the clinical outcome, 00:03:59.370 --> 00:04:01.909 right? The trauma response in the brain is the 00:04:01.909 --> 00:04:04.590 same, regardless of whether you label it drama 00:04:04.590 --> 00:04:06.830 or abuse. The brain doesn't care about the label. 00:04:06.889 --> 00:04:09.750 The cortisol spike's just the same. So if drama 00:04:09.750 --> 00:04:12.650 is the umbrella term they're using, we need to 00:04:12.650 --> 00:04:14.770 look at the specific mechanics under that umbrella 00:04:14.770 --> 00:04:18.290 because the toolkit for this has evolved so significantly. 00:04:18.350 --> 00:04:20.769 Oh, massively. We aren't talking about mean emails 00:04:20.769 --> 00:04:23.129 anymore. We're talking about tactics that can 00:04:23.129 --> 00:04:26.389 destroy credit scores, physical safety, future 00:04:26.389 --> 00:04:28.470 employability. I mean, the stakes are so much 00:04:28.470 --> 00:04:30.769 higher. They really are. Let's start with the 00:04:30.769 --> 00:04:33.509 escalation from just monitoring someone's profile 00:04:33.509 --> 00:04:36.920 to what we call cyber stalking. Okay. Cyberstalking 00:04:36.920 --> 00:04:39.680 is the bridge where digital harassment crosses 00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:43.199 into physical danger. It's defined by the presence 00:04:43.199 --> 00:04:45.800 of a credible threat. A credible threat of what? 00:04:45.879 --> 00:04:49.300 Physical harm? Usually, yes. It's not just looking 00:04:49.300 --> 00:04:51.500 at someone's Instagram stories. It's using that 00:04:51.500 --> 00:04:54.399 location data to map their daily movements. It's 00:04:54.399 --> 00:04:56.939 making false accusations to their employer or 00:04:56.939 --> 00:04:59.949 their family. And crucially, it often involves 00:04:59.949 --> 00:05:02.569 what's called proxy harassment. Proxy harassment. 00:05:03.050 --> 00:05:05.230 Encouraging third parties to attack the victim 00:05:05.230 --> 00:05:07.959 on your behalf. You stir up a mob. Which leads 00:05:07.959 --> 00:05:10.560 us directly to doxing. I think most listeners 00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:13.000 probably know the basic definition publishing 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:15.139 private info like an address or a phone number 00:05:15.139 --> 00:05:18.079 online. Right. But the intent behind doxing is 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:20.279 what I want to drill into. It's rarely about 00:05:20.279 --> 00:05:23.500 just revealing information for its own sake. 00:05:23.639 --> 00:05:26.060 No, it's a call to arms. It's painting a target 00:05:26.060 --> 00:05:28.500 on someone's back and then handing the coordinates 00:05:28.500 --> 00:05:32.620 to an anonymous angry mob. It relies on the weaponization 00:05:32.620 --> 00:05:35.089 of the crowd. The doxer doesn't want to show 00:05:35.089 --> 00:05:37.389 up at your house. They want a hundred strangers 00:05:37.389 --> 00:05:39.410 to show up at your house, or at least to call 00:05:39.410 --> 00:05:42.730 it nonstop. And the catalysts for this can be 00:05:42.730 --> 00:05:45.050 incredibly, incredibly trivial. We have the K 00:05:45.050 --> 00:05:47.850 -pop war case study in the notes, which really 00:05:47.850 --> 00:05:51.269 highlights the asymmetry of motivation versus 00:05:51.269 --> 00:05:54.069 consequence. This story is wild. You have the 00:05:54.069 --> 00:05:56.529 Blinks, who are fans of the group Blackpink, 00:05:56.589 --> 00:05:59.110 and you have fans of the rival group Twice. These 00:05:59.110 --> 00:06:02.040 are pop music fandoms. On the surface, yes. But 00:06:02.040 --> 00:06:03.939 the infrastructure they have built is almost 00:06:03.939 --> 00:06:07.480 paramilitary. The level of organization is staggering. 00:06:07.639 --> 00:06:11.779 It is. In this specific case, there was a perceived 00:06:11.779 --> 00:06:16.439 slight, a member of TWICE. allegedly disrespected 00:06:16.439 --> 00:06:18.759 a member of Black Ink. Something tiny. Well, 00:06:18.759 --> 00:06:20.720 they didn't bow correctly or something? Something 00:06:20.720 --> 00:06:23.160 exactly like that. And in retaliation, the fans 00:06:23.160 --> 00:06:25.959 didn't just tweet angry things. They identified 00:06:25.959 --> 00:06:29.060 the owner of a popular Twice fan account, doxed 00:06:29.060 --> 00:06:31.399 them, completely addressed phone number of family 00:06:31.399 --> 00:06:34.379 members. Oh, my God. And the harassment was so 00:06:34.379 --> 00:06:37.519 severe and so coordinated that the victim ended 00:06:37.519 --> 00:06:39.860 up being hospitalized. From a discussion about 00:06:39.860 --> 00:06:42.220 pop music to a hospital bed. That's the leap. 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:45.649 That is that drama. nuance again, outsiders might 00:06:45.649 --> 00:06:48.370 see music fans arguing, but the mechanism is 00:06:48.370 --> 00:06:51.350 a highly organized assault. And it often utilizes 00:06:51.350 --> 00:06:53.509 another tactic. Yeah. Digital identity theft 00:06:53.509 --> 00:06:55.550 or impersonation. This is another one that is 00:06:55.550 --> 00:06:57.689 scaled up massively. Right. In the old days, 00:06:57.750 --> 00:06:59.829 you might pretend to be someone in an AOL chat 00:06:59.829 --> 00:07:02.290 room. Yeah, for an hour. Now, you can clone a 00:07:02.290 --> 00:07:04.829 person's entire digital identity to systematically 00:07:04.829 --> 00:07:07.290 destroy their reputation, create a fake social 00:07:07.290 --> 00:07:09.310 media account that looks exactly like theirs, 00:07:09.410 --> 00:07:12.069 and start posting hateful content. The Sony Music 00:07:12.069 --> 00:07:14.790 Twitter hack is the classic large scale example 00:07:14.790 --> 00:07:18.089 of how fragile our verification systems are. 00:07:18.170 --> 00:07:20.769 It really is. The account gets compromised. Somebody 00:07:20.769 --> 00:07:24.990 tweets hashtag RIBritney and for a solid what? 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:28.459 20, 30 minutes, a significant portion of the 00:07:28.459 --> 00:07:30.620 world believes Britney Spears is dead. That's 00:07:30.620 --> 00:07:33.100 reputation destruction at a global scale. But 00:07:33.100 --> 00:07:35.519 bring that down to the micro level. A high school 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:38.339 student hacking a rival's Instagram account and 00:07:38.339 --> 00:07:41.819 posting racist slurs or a fake confession to 00:07:41.819 --> 00:07:44.259 a crime. And the screenshot lasts forever. Even 00:07:44.259 --> 00:07:46.000 if you eventually prove you were hacked, that 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:49.199 image of you saying that horrible thing circulates 00:07:49.199 --> 00:07:50.839 indefinitely. This is the permanence. That's 00:07:50.839 --> 00:07:52.839 what makes it so lethal. It's never truly gone. 00:07:53.060 --> 00:07:55.269 And that permanence is the leverage point. extortion. 00:07:55.370 --> 00:07:57.589 This is arguably the most predatory tactic we 00:07:57.589 --> 00:08:00.529 are seeing. It's just horrific. It's a distinct 00:08:00.529 --> 00:08:03.810 criminal enterprise. The goal is to acquire intimate 00:08:03.810 --> 00:08:06.310 images, either coerced from the victim or stolen, 00:08:06.610 --> 00:08:09.470 and then use them as blackmail. For money, for 00:08:09.470 --> 00:08:12.329 more images, for control. The WF West High School 00:08:12.329 --> 00:08:15.139 case is the nightmare scenario here. We aren't 00:08:15.139 --> 00:08:17.879 talking about a messy breakup where one person 00:08:17.879 --> 00:08:20.839 shares a photo out of anger. No, not at all. 00:08:20.939 --> 00:08:23.220 We are talking about a 16 -year -old boy running 00:08:23.220 --> 00:08:26.100 a digital extortion ring from his bedroom. The 00:08:26.100 --> 00:08:30.180 scale was industrial. One student, over 100 victims, 00:08:30.420 --> 00:08:32.879 many of them his classmates, and he possessed 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:37.279 over 900 images and videos. 900? He wasn't just 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:40.220 getting back at an ex. He was systematically 00:08:40.220 --> 00:08:43.700 collecting leverage on his entire peer group. 00:08:44.250 --> 00:08:46.350 He used the threat of releasing these images 00:08:46.350 --> 00:08:48.649 to control them, to get money from them, or sometimes 00:08:48.649 --> 00:08:51.490 just to inflict pain. It effectively turns the 00:08:51.490 --> 00:08:54.690 victim's own privacy into a hostage. And because 00:08:54.690 --> 00:08:56.690 of the shame associated with it, the victims 00:08:56.690 --> 00:08:58.789 are terrified to go to the police or to their 00:08:58.789 --> 00:09:00.970 parents. It's the perfect crime in that sense. 00:09:01.029 --> 00:09:03.509 It relies on silence. Which is why the perpetrator 00:09:03.509 --> 00:09:05.750 got away with it for as long as he did. He understood 00:09:05.750 --> 00:09:07.970 that the social cost for the victims of coming 00:09:07.970 --> 00:09:10.049 forward was higher than the risk of him getting 00:09:10.049 --> 00:09:13.009 caught until it wasn't. Until one person was 00:09:13.009 --> 00:09:15.559 brave enough? I want to pivot now to a specific 00:09:15.559 --> 00:09:17.779 historical moment that I think really defined 00:09:17.779 --> 00:09:21.039 the viral era of bullying. We have to talk about 00:09:21.039 --> 00:09:23.799 Ghislaine Raza, who is known to the entire internet 00:09:23.799 --> 00:09:27.299 as the Star Wars kid. This is effectively patient 00:09:27.299 --> 00:09:30.299 zero. If you want to understand the modern viral 00:09:30.299 --> 00:09:32.980 ecosystem, the modern meme culture, you have 00:09:32.980 --> 00:09:35.179 to understand what happened to Ghislaine Raza 00:09:35.179 --> 00:09:38.259 in 2003. Right. And to set the scene, you have 00:09:38.259 --> 00:09:41.179 to remember what 2003 was like. This is pre -YouTube, 00:09:41.320 --> 00:09:44.320 pre -iPhone, pre -social media algorithms. There 00:09:44.320 --> 00:09:46.539 was no for you page pushing content. Exactly. 00:09:46.679 --> 00:09:49.200 The viral mechanism wasn't the algorithm. It 00:09:49.200 --> 00:09:51.279 was peer to peer. It was file sharing services 00:09:51.279 --> 00:09:54.779 like Kazaa and LimeWire. It was email chains. 00:09:55.039 --> 00:09:58.629 For a video to hit. 900 million views in 2003, 00:09:58.769 --> 00:10:00.970 which is the conservative estimate. It required 00:10:00.970 --> 00:10:03.950 active human effort. People had to download a 00:10:03.950 --> 00:10:07.470 clunky 20 megabyte WMV file. Oh, I remember those. 00:10:07.750 --> 00:10:09.470 They had to save it to their hard drive. They 00:10:09.470 --> 00:10:11.070 had to attach it to an email and send it to their 00:10:11.070 --> 00:10:13.090 friends. It was a manual cascade of humiliation. 00:10:13.429 --> 00:10:16.409 And the content itself was so innocent. He's 00:10:16.409 --> 00:10:18.230 a ninth grader in Quebec. He's a little overweight. 00:10:18.370 --> 00:10:21.250 And he's in a studio filming himself practicing 00:10:21.250 --> 00:10:23.850 lightsaber moves with a golf ball retriever. 00:10:23.950 --> 00:10:26.789 Because he's a fan of the Phantom Menace. That's 00:10:26.789 --> 00:10:29.289 it. It's just a kid being a kid. And he didn't 00:10:29.289 --> 00:10:32.009 upload it. He left the tape in a basement at 00:10:32.009 --> 00:10:34.110 his school. This is the part of the story that 00:10:34.110 --> 00:10:36.809 always gets me. That is the violation of consent 00:10:36.809 --> 00:10:39.870 that often gets overlooked in the telling. Classmates 00:10:39.870 --> 00:10:42.830 found the tape, they digitized it, and they unleashed 00:10:42.830 --> 00:10:45.230 it on the Internet. without his knowledge or 00:10:45.230 --> 00:10:48.090 permission. He didn't seek fame. He was drafted 00:10:48.090 --> 00:10:51.009 into it. And the fallout was, it was catastrophic. 00:10:51.269 --> 00:10:53.490 We aren't just talking about people online laughing 00:10:53.490 --> 00:10:55.889 at a funny video. No, this was total life disruption. 00:10:56.169 --> 00:10:58.809 He was doxxed before we really had a popular 00:10:58.809 --> 00:11:01.009 word for it. People found his family's phone 00:11:01.009 --> 00:11:02.870 number. They were calling his house, telling 00:11:02.870 --> 00:11:05.190 him to admit suicide. Over a video of him playing 00:11:05.190 --> 00:11:07.210 with a golf club. And the harassment bridged 00:11:07.210 --> 00:11:10.809 the online -offline gap almost immediately. Students 00:11:10.809 --> 00:11:13.009 at his own school were jumping onto tabletops 00:11:13.009 --> 00:11:15.889 in the cafeteria to mock his moves right in front 00:11:15.889 --> 00:11:19.049 of him. He became a global punchline. He was 00:11:19.049 --> 00:11:21.309 parodied on South Park, on Arrested Development, 00:11:21.649 --> 00:11:24.570 on pretty much every late night show. Imagine 00:11:24.570 --> 00:11:27.549 being 15 years old and having global pop culture 00:11:27.549 --> 00:11:29.830 turn against you for something you did in private. 00:11:30.360 --> 00:11:32.340 He had to change schools. Eventually he had to 00:11:32.340 --> 00:11:34.139 be homeschooled. He was diagnosed with severe 00:11:34.139 --> 00:11:37.360 depression. It completely derailed his adolescence. 00:11:37.480 --> 00:11:39.960 And the legal recourse at the time was so messy 00:11:39.960 --> 00:11:42.379 because the laws just didn't exist yet, did they? 00:11:42.639 --> 00:11:45.679 They didn't. His family ended up suing the families 00:11:45.679 --> 00:11:48.159 of the classmates who uploaded the video for 00:11:48.159 --> 00:11:51.759 around $250 ,000. They settled out of court. 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:54.940 But it highlighted this massive gap in the legal 00:11:54.940 --> 00:11:57.820 system regarding the right to privacy for private 00:11:57.820 --> 00:11:59.799 figures who become public spectacles against 00:11:59.799 --> 00:12:02.000 their will. What's amazing is that Raza is an 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:04.519 adult now and he's done an incredible job reclaiming 00:12:04.519 --> 00:12:06.759 his own narrative. He has. He went to law school 00:12:06.759 --> 00:12:09.340 and he now works on issues related to digital 00:12:09.340 --> 00:12:11.539 privacy and public humiliation, trying to help 00:12:11.539 --> 00:12:13.919 others. He's trying to turn it around. But he 00:12:13.919 --> 00:12:17.139 lost his entire adolescence to a meme. It's just 00:12:17.139 --> 00:12:19.360 a stark reminder that the internet has a very, 00:12:19.399 --> 00:12:22.440 very long memory, and it doesn't really do forgiveness. 00:12:22.600 --> 00:12:25.399 It doesn't. Your worst moment can become your 00:12:25.399 --> 00:12:29.000 permanent identity. That brings us to the where. 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:31.419 We've talked about what they do, but the platforms 00:12:31.419 --> 00:12:34.240 themselves shape the behavior. You mentioned 00:12:34.240 --> 00:12:38.159 earlier that anonymity is power. Nowhere is that 00:12:38.159 --> 00:12:40.799 more true than in the world of online gaming. 00:12:41.179 --> 00:12:44.179 Gaming is a unique vector for this. partly because 00:12:44.179 --> 00:12:46.320 of the immersion. You are locked in a shared 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:48.919 virtual space with others for hours at a time. 00:12:49.019 --> 00:12:51.279 It's intense. And the numbers back that up. Pew 00:12:51.279 --> 00:12:54.139 Research notes that 16 % of harassment victims 00:12:54.139 --> 00:12:56.679 say their most recent serious incident happened 00:12:56.679 --> 00:12:59.340 inside a game. And the technical sophistication 00:12:59.340 --> 00:13:01.539 of harassment in gaming is on another level. 00:13:01.639 --> 00:13:03.320 I mean, look at the phenomenon of hate raids 00:13:03.320 --> 00:13:05.399 on Twitch. This is where it gets really technical. 00:13:05.600 --> 00:13:07.659 A hate raid isn't just a bunch of people deciding 00:13:07.659 --> 00:13:10.820 to be mean in a chat. No, it's automation. It's 00:13:10.820 --> 00:13:14.360 industrialized hate. Attackers use scripts to 00:13:14.360 --> 00:13:17.000 deploy hundreds or even thousands of chatbots, 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:20.179 fake accounts, that all flood a streamer's chat 00:13:20.179 --> 00:13:22.600 at the exact same moment. With what, just spam? 00:13:22.860 --> 00:13:25.960 With racist slurs, death threats, doxing information. 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:29.559 The chat moves so fast that human moderators 00:13:29.559 --> 00:13:32.039 can't possibly keep up. You can't delete it. 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:34.480 It forces the streamer to shut down their broadcast. 00:13:34.879 --> 00:13:37.519 So it's a denial of service attack, but for a 00:13:37.519 --> 00:13:40.590 person's speech? Using slurs as the weapon. It 00:13:40.590 --> 00:13:42.870 effectively censors them through noise. And then 00:13:42.870 --> 00:13:44.490 there's swatting, which we touched on before. 00:13:44.649 --> 00:13:46.590 But I want to get into the mechanics of why this 00:13:46.590 --> 00:13:48.610 is so hard to stop. You'd think the police would 00:13:48.610 --> 00:13:51.820 know if a 911 call is fake. The problem is VoIP 00:13:51.820 --> 00:13:55.100 voice over IP technology. Swatters use internet 00:13:55.100 --> 00:13:57.720 -based calling services that can mask their real 00:13:57.720 --> 00:14:00.480 location. They can spoof the number so it looks 00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:02.820 to the 911 operator like the call is coming from 00:14:02.820 --> 00:14:05.000 inside the victim's house. So the operator sees 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:07.559 a local number, hears a credible threat of a 00:14:07.559 --> 00:14:10.220 hostage situation or a bomb. They have to take 00:14:10.220 --> 00:14:12.039 it seriously. They have no choice. They have 00:14:12.039 --> 00:14:14.100 to assume it's real and send a full tactical 00:14:14.100 --> 00:14:17.700 response. And the consequences are lethal. The 00:14:17.700 --> 00:14:21.370 2017 Wichita case. The death of Andrew Finch. 00:14:21.490 --> 00:14:24.529 That case is the most tragic example of how virtual 00:14:24.529 --> 00:14:27.570 actions can have devastating kinetic results 00:14:27.570 --> 00:14:30.669 in the real world. And what was it over? A dispute 00:14:30.669 --> 00:14:34.190 over a $1 .50 bet in a game of Call of Duty. 00:14:34.490 --> 00:14:38.450 $1 .50? $1 .50. One player gets angry, tweets 00:14:38.450 --> 00:14:40.610 a fake address to a third party daring them to 00:14:40.610 --> 00:14:43.090 do something. The other player takes the bait, 00:14:43.250 --> 00:14:46.669 calls in a fake hostage situation at that address. 00:14:46.889 --> 00:14:48.730 But it wasn't the other player's address. No. 00:14:49.070 --> 00:14:51.330 It was the address of Andrew Finch, a completely 00:14:51.330 --> 00:14:53.450 innocent man who didn't even play the game. He 00:14:53.450 --> 00:14:55.730 had nothing to do with it. The police surrounded 00:14:55.730 --> 00:14:57.889 his house. He walked out onto his porch, confused, 00:14:58.149 --> 00:15:00.669 and a police sniper shot and killed him. It's 00:15:00.669 --> 00:15:03.289 manslaughter by proxy. It's just unbelievable. 00:15:03.409 --> 00:15:05.990 And yet you have figures inside the gaming community 00:15:05.990 --> 00:15:09.129 who will defend the toxicity. Yes, which is maybe 00:15:09.129 --> 00:15:11.110 the most disturbing part. We have this quote 00:15:11.110 --> 00:15:13.690 from Eris Bactanians, a well -known fighting 00:15:13.690 --> 00:15:16.629 game coach, that really encapsulates this gatekeeper 00:15:16.629 --> 00:15:20.509 mentality. It was a very revealing moment. He 00:15:20.509 --> 00:15:23.210 argued on a live stream that sexual harassment 00:15:23.210 --> 00:15:26.210 was part of the culture of the fighting game 00:15:26.210 --> 00:15:28.929 community. His words. Part of the culture. He 00:15:28.929 --> 00:15:31.950 said that removing it or policing it would destroy 00:15:31.950 --> 00:15:35.110 the community's identity. It's an explicit defense 00:15:35.110 --> 00:15:38.309 of abuse as a form of cultural heritage. The 00:15:38.309 --> 00:15:41.509 argument is basically, we are tough, we are mean, 00:15:41.610 --> 00:15:43.950 we are toxic, and if you can't handle it, get 00:15:43.950 --> 00:15:47.899 out. It's the locker room talk defense. but digitized 00:15:47.899 --> 00:15:50.559 and scaled up. It's about gatekeeping, about 00:15:50.559 --> 00:15:53.100 keeping certain people, often women, out of the 00:15:53.100 --> 00:15:55.980 space. And we see a different but maybe related 00:15:55.980 --> 00:15:59.240 version of that hostility on dating apps. Dating 00:15:59.240 --> 00:16:01.419 apps are designed for vulnerability, which is 00:16:01.419 --> 00:16:03.360 what makes the abuse on them hit so much harder. 00:16:03.440 --> 00:16:04.600 You're putting yourself out there trying to make 00:16:04.600 --> 00:16:06.220 a connection. And the stats are pretty grim. 00:16:06.399 --> 00:16:09.960 60 % of female users aged 18 to 34 report receiving 00:16:09.960 --> 00:16:12.940 unsolicited sexual messages or images. And it's 00:16:12.940 --> 00:16:16.070 not just women. 36 % of all users, men and women, 00:16:16.230 --> 00:16:18.649 report experiencing some form of online abuse 00:16:18.649 --> 00:16:21.730 on these apps. It creates a kind of a tax on 00:16:21.730 --> 00:16:24.850 finding a partner. If you want to use these tools 00:16:24.850 --> 00:16:27.809 to date in the modern world, you have to be willing 00:16:27.809 --> 00:16:30.169 to endure a certain level of harassment. It's 00:16:30.169 --> 00:16:33.090 an exclusion tax. It pushes people away, it increases 00:16:33.090 --> 00:16:35.889 anxiety, and it makes people less willing to 00:16:35.889 --> 00:16:38.389 be vulnerable in a space that requires vulnerability 00:16:38.389 --> 00:16:41.570 to work. It's a fundamental design flaw, almost. 00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:44.259 Speaking of design, I want to talk about Google 00:16:44.259 --> 00:16:47.440 Bombs. This is a tactic that feels like dark 00:16:47.440 --> 00:16:50.080 magic to the average user, but it's actually 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:52.440 just manipulating the basic plumbing of the search 00:16:52.440 --> 00:16:54.759 engine. It's search engine optimization SEO, 00:16:54.960 --> 00:16:58.279 but weaponized. It's a really clever and evil 00:16:58.279 --> 00:17:00.860 manipulation of how Google's algorithm works. 00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:03.580 How does it work? Well, Google's algorithm relies 00:17:03.580 --> 00:17:06.119 heavily on something called anchor text. That's 00:17:06.119 --> 00:17:07.859 the clickable words people use when they link 00:17:07.859 --> 00:17:10.599 to a website. If thousands of websites link to 00:17:10.599 --> 00:17:12.359 your personal blog using the words brilliant 00:17:12.359 --> 00:17:14.980 scientist, Google's algorithm starts to assume 00:17:14.980 --> 00:17:16.940 that you are, in fact, a brilliant scientist. 00:17:17.220 --> 00:17:20.319 It sees the consensus. Exactly. So what bullies 00:17:20.319 --> 00:17:22.700 do is they reverse it. They create link farms. 00:17:23.279 --> 00:17:25.920 networks of fake websites or blogs, and they 00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:27.920 all point to the victim's social media profile 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:30.220 or their business page. But they use negative 00:17:30.220 --> 00:17:33.980 anchor text, words like criminal or liar or something 00:17:33.980 --> 00:17:36.079 much worse. So it's not about truth. It's about 00:17:36.079 --> 00:17:39.160 volume and consensus. It has nothing to do with 00:17:39.160 --> 00:17:42.119 truth. It's an information cascade. They game 00:17:42.119 --> 00:17:45.119 the PageRank system so that the first thing a 00:17:45.119 --> 00:17:47.720 future employer or a new date or anyone sees 00:17:47.720 --> 00:17:49.839 when they Google your name is this horrible lie 00:17:49.839 --> 00:17:53.089 presented as the number one search result. It's 00:17:53.089 --> 00:17:55.670 like digitally rewriting someone's resume against 00:17:55.670 --> 00:17:58.049 their will. So we know the how, but let's get 00:17:58.049 --> 00:18:00.750 into the who. Because the profile of the bully 00:18:00.750 --> 00:18:03.349 isn't what those 1980s teen movies taught us, 00:18:03.390 --> 00:18:06.289 is it? No, the Nelson from the Simpsons archetype. 00:18:06.289 --> 00:18:08.869 The big, physically imposing, but not very bright 00:18:08.869 --> 00:18:11.130 bully. That just doesn't apply here. So what 00:18:11.130 --> 00:18:13.069 does the research say? Some of the research is 00:18:13.069 --> 00:18:15.289 really counterintuitive. It indicates that cyber 00:18:15.289 --> 00:18:17.710 victims are often the physically stronger or 00:18:17.710 --> 00:18:19.710 socially dominant students in the offline world. 00:18:19.950 --> 00:18:23.750 Wait, that flips the entire script. So the captain 00:18:23.750 --> 00:18:25.509 of the football team is more likely to be the 00:18:25.509 --> 00:18:29.009 target. In some contexts, yes, because online 00:18:29.009 --> 00:18:31.549 bullying is the great equalizer. It's a form 00:18:31.549 --> 00:18:34.410 of asymmetric warfare. Meaning what? Meaning 00:18:34.410 --> 00:18:37.049 if I can't beat you in a fistfight or I can't 00:18:37.049 --> 00:18:38.710 compete with your popularity in the hallway, 00:18:38.849 --> 00:18:42.109 I can go online and absolutely destroy you because 00:18:42.109 --> 00:18:46.099 online physical strength is irrelevant. Anonymity 00:18:46.099 --> 00:18:48.140 is my strength. So it's the weapon of choice 00:18:48.140 --> 00:18:51.640 for the physically weaker to attack the physically 00:18:51.640 --> 00:18:54.240 stronger. Or the socially less powerful to attack 00:18:54.240 --> 00:18:56.339 the socially powerful. It's a way to punch up 00:18:56.339 --> 00:18:58.819 in a sense, but using these really destructive 00:18:58.819 --> 00:19:01.500 tactics. And personality wise, are we seeing 00:19:01.500 --> 00:19:05.559 signs of like sociopathy or is it just boredom 00:19:05.559 --> 00:19:08.220 and cruelty? The profiles often show high levels 00:19:08.220 --> 00:19:11.920 of anger. Low empathy and high impulsivity. But 00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:13.839 the gender dynamics here are also really nuanced. 00:19:14.039 --> 00:19:16.099 There's this common trope that bullying is a 00:19:16.099 --> 00:19:18.700 boy thing. But the data says otherwise. The data 00:19:18.700 --> 00:19:20.859 says that while boys might initiate physical 00:19:20.859 --> 00:19:23.700 bullying earlier, by middle school, girls are 00:19:23.700 --> 00:19:25.900 actually more likely to engage in cyberbullying 00:19:25.900 --> 00:19:29.480 than boys are. More likely. Why? It seems to 00:19:29.480 --> 00:19:31.859 align with evolutionary psychology theories regarding 00:19:31.859 --> 00:19:35.759 indirect aggression. Right. The idea that stereotypically 00:19:35.759 --> 00:19:38.859 boys are socialized for direct physical confrontation, 00:19:39.059 --> 00:19:41.660 shoving, hitting, while girls are often socialized 00:19:41.660 --> 00:19:44.380 for reputational management. Precisely. The weapons 00:19:44.380 --> 00:19:48.279 are gossip, social exclusion. manipulation. The 00:19:48.279 --> 00:19:50.480 Internet is the ultimate engine for indirect 00:19:50.480 --> 00:19:53.299 aggression. It allows you to destroy someone's 00:19:53.299 --> 00:19:55.819 reputation and social standing without ever having 00:19:55.819 --> 00:19:58.140 to throw a punch. Which would explain stats like 00:19:58.140 --> 00:20:00.859 the 2014 study we have here where 80 percent 00:20:00.859 --> 00:20:03.220 of body shaming tweets were sent by women. It's 00:20:03.220 --> 00:20:05.660 a brutal competitive arena for social standing. 00:20:05.799 --> 00:20:08.140 And for women, historically, that competition 00:20:08.140 --> 00:20:10.779 has often been indirect and focused on reputation 00:20:10.779 --> 00:20:13.859 and appearance. The Internet just amplifies that. 00:20:13.960 --> 00:20:16.559 There is one subcategory of the who that is just. 00:20:16.720 --> 00:20:18.779 It's completely baffling, and that's digital 00:20:18.779 --> 00:20:21.039 self -harm. This is often the hardest one for 00:20:21.039 --> 00:20:23.259 parents and educators to understand or even believe 00:20:23.259 --> 00:20:25.960 is real. So explain what it is. This is when 00:20:25.960 --> 00:20:28.680 a teen creates an anonymous account online to 00:20:28.680 --> 00:20:32.000 cyberbully themselves. They post hateful comments 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:34.660 on their own photos. They send themselves anonymous 00:20:34.660 --> 00:20:38.609 threats. Why? Is it a cry for help? Is it some 00:20:38.609 --> 00:20:40.990 kind of strategy? It can be several things. It's 00:20:40.990 --> 00:20:43.789 often a very maladaptive coping mechanism. Sometimes 00:20:43.789 --> 00:20:46.490 it's validation seeking. They post hate on their 00:20:46.490 --> 00:20:48.390 own page, hoping their real friends will jump 00:20:48.390 --> 00:20:50.309 into the comments and say, no, you're beautiful. 00:20:50.450 --> 00:20:53.069 Ignore them. So it's a way to test their support 00:20:53.069 --> 00:20:56.650 network. In a very risky way, yes. Other times 00:20:56.650 --> 00:20:58.950 it's a direct manifestation of depression or 00:20:58.950 --> 00:21:01.750 self -loathing. They're essentially externalizing 00:21:01.750 --> 00:21:04.329 their own negative internal monologue. But from 00:21:04.329 --> 00:21:06.609 the outside, it creates this statistical noise 00:21:06.609 --> 00:21:09.390 that makes it very hard to track real bullying 00:21:09.390 --> 00:21:11.569 incidents. Let's talk about the impact of all 00:21:11.569 --> 00:21:13.609 of this. We touched on the young minds theory 00:21:13.609 --> 00:21:16.130 in our prep notes. I think this is crucial for 00:21:16.130 --> 00:21:18.069 understanding why teens don't just turn off the 00:21:18.069 --> 00:21:19.970 phone. I think it's the most important concept. 00:21:20.329 --> 00:21:23.210 The young minds theory is rooted in neurobiology. 00:21:23.650 --> 00:21:26.319 The prefrontal cortex. That's the part of the 00:21:26.319 --> 00:21:28.779 brain responsible for impulse control, for risk 00:21:28.779 --> 00:21:32.019 assessment, for emotional regulation. It isn't 00:21:32.019 --> 00:21:33.920 fully developed until a person is in their mid 00:21:33.920 --> 00:21:37.900 -20s. So when an adult like us reads a mean comment 00:21:37.900 --> 00:21:41.859 online, we have the biological hardware to process 00:21:41.859 --> 00:21:44.119 it and say, OK, this is a troll in their mother's 00:21:44.119 --> 00:21:46.039 basement. This doesn't matter. I'm moving on. 00:21:46.140 --> 00:21:49.079 Right. We have a filter. We can compartmentalize. 00:21:49.079 --> 00:21:51.859 We can separate our sense of self from the opinion 00:21:51.859 --> 00:21:54.349 of an anonymous stranger. But a 14 -year -old 00:21:54.349 --> 00:21:57.349 often lacks that separation. Their brain can't 00:21:57.349 --> 00:22:00.109 do it as effectively. Their online identity and 00:22:00.109 --> 00:22:02.190 their real -world identity are often completely 00:22:02.190 --> 00:22:04.690 fused. So when they read a comment that says 00:22:04.690 --> 00:22:07.289 you are worthless and should die, their brain 00:22:07.289 --> 00:22:10.710 processes that. as absolute objective truth, 00:22:10.849 --> 00:22:13.430 not as one person's nasty opinion. The abuse 00:22:13.430 --> 00:22:15.630 bypasses the logic center and hits the emotional 00:22:15.630 --> 00:22:18.210 core directly. It's a direct shot to the amygdala. 00:22:18.230 --> 00:22:20.150 There is no filter. Which explains the direct 00:22:20.150 --> 00:22:23.710 and tragic line to the term cyberbullicide. It's 00:22:23.710 --> 00:22:26.190 a controversial term, but a necessary one to 00:22:26.190 --> 00:22:29.470 describe suicide that has been influenced by 00:22:29.470 --> 00:22:31.900 online aggression. We see these heartbreaking 00:22:31.900 --> 00:22:35.559 cases like Megan Meyer, Ryan Halligan, or Rebecca 00:22:35.559 --> 00:22:38.160 Ann Sedgwick, young people who were essentially 00:22:38.160 --> 00:22:41.500 hounded to death online. Rebecca's case was particularly 00:22:41.500 --> 00:22:45.740 awful. She was terrorized on apps like Ask .fm 00:22:45.740 --> 00:22:48.700 and Kik. platforms that allowed for total anonymity, 00:22:48.920 --> 00:22:51.680 the harassment was relentless and inescapable. 00:22:51.779 --> 00:22:54.180 And that inescapability is the key difference 00:22:54.180 --> 00:22:57.500 from, say, bullying in 1990. Back then, home 00:22:57.500 --> 00:22:59.500 was a safe zone. You could close your front door 00:22:59.500 --> 00:23:01.319 and leave the bully at school. Not anymore. The 00:23:01.319 --> 00:23:03.299 bully's in your pocket. It's on your phone. You 00:23:03.299 --> 00:23:04.839 wake up to new messages from them. You go to 00:23:04.839 --> 00:23:06.700 sleep reading their threats. But the body never 00:23:06.700 --> 00:23:09.420 gets a break. Never. The cortisol levels, the 00:23:09.420 --> 00:23:11.900 primary stress hormone, they never drop. Your 00:23:11.900 --> 00:23:14.200 body is in a permanent state of fight or flight, 00:23:14.359 --> 00:23:16.750 which is why we see such severe... severe psychosomatic 00:23:16.750 --> 00:23:19.450 symptoms, chronic stomach aches, bed wetting 00:23:19.450 --> 00:23:21.970 in older kids, severe acne flare -ups, sleep 00:23:21.970 --> 00:23:24.890 disorders. The body is screaming for help. And 00:23:24.890 --> 00:23:27.450 this isn't just about kids, though. We are seeing 00:23:27.450 --> 00:23:30.390 a significant chilling effect on professionals 00:23:30.390 --> 00:23:33.430 who are targeted. Doctors, scientists, journalists. 00:23:33.890 --> 00:23:36.539 Absolutely. Think about it. If you're a public 00:23:36.539 --> 00:23:39.039 health expert and you post factual information 00:23:39.039 --> 00:23:42.559 about vaccines and you get swarmed by thousands 00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:45.180 of bots and death threats from anti -vaccine 00:23:45.180 --> 00:23:47.240 activists. You might just decide it's not worth 00:23:47.240 --> 00:23:50.579 it. You stop posting. We, the public, lose your 00:23:50.579 --> 00:23:53.819 expertise. It's a form of soft censorship via 00:23:53.819 --> 00:23:57.019 coordinated harassment. The public square becomes 00:23:57.019 --> 00:23:59.539 dumber and more dangerous because the smart, 00:23:59.619 --> 00:24:01.839 qualified people are too scared to enter it. 00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:05.660 So with stakes this high, why is the law so bad 00:24:05.660 --> 00:24:07.779 at fixing this? If I walked up to someone on 00:24:07.779 --> 00:24:09.440 the street and screamed threats in their face, 00:24:09.500 --> 00:24:11.759 I'd be arrested. Why is the Internet so often 00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:14.480 a legal dead zone? In the U .S., it comes down 00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:16.960 to the constant powerful friction between ensuring 00:24:16.960 --> 00:24:19.460 safety and protecting the First Amendment. The 00:24:19.460 --> 00:24:21.599 U .S. legal system is extremely protective of 00:24:21.599 --> 00:24:24.359 speech, even speech that is vile and hateful. 00:24:24.700 --> 00:24:27.180 Let's look at the People v. Marquand M case in 00:24:27.180 --> 00:24:29.420 Albany County, New York. This felt like a pivotal 00:24:29.420 --> 00:24:31.740 moment that went the wrong way for victims. It 00:24:31.740 --> 00:24:33.920 was a textbook example of a legal doctrine called 00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:36.960 void for vagueness. Albany County passed a law 00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:39.440 trying to criminalize cyberbullying, but they 00:24:39.440 --> 00:24:42.539 defined it as any communication intended to annoy, 00:24:42.740 --> 00:24:45.460 harass, or alarm another person. And the problem 00:24:45.460 --> 00:24:49.279 is that little word, annoy. Legally, annoy is 00:24:49.279 --> 00:24:52.380 incredibly subjective and broad. If I post a 00:24:52.380 --> 00:24:54.140 political opinion that you passionately disagree 00:24:54.140 --> 00:24:57.720 with, I am, by definition, annoying you. So under 00:24:57.720 --> 00:24:59.660 that law, I could be arrested for a political 00:24:59.660 --> 00:25:02.420 tweet. Potentially, yes. And that's why the New 00:25:02.420 --> 00:25:05.019 York Court of Appeals struck the law down. It 00:25:05.019 --> 00:25:07.759 cast a net so wide that it inevitably caught 00:25:07.759 --> 00:25:10.559 constitutionally protected speech. You generally 00:25:10.559 --> 00:25:13.599 cannot legislate against being mean without also 00:25:13.599 --> 00:25:16.190 infringing on the right to be opinionated. Unless 00:25:16.190 --> 00:25:17.990 it crosses the line into what the courts call 00:25:17.990 --> 00:25:20.690 true threats. Right. And that line is very specific. 00:25:20.930 --> 00:25:23.170 I am going to kill you tomorrow at 4 p .m. at 00:25:23.170 --> 00:25:26.230 your house is a prime. I hope you die in a fire 00:25:26.230 --> 00:25:29.069 is, in most cases, legally protected speech. 00:25:29.690 --> 00:25:32.329 That gap between a threat and a wish is where 00:25:32.329 --> 00:25:34.170 the bullies live. Other countries handle this 00:25:34.170 --> 00:25:36.160 very differently, though. The Philippines has 00:25:36.160 --> 00:25:39.420 cyber libel laws. Very strict ones, yes. And 00:25:39.420 --> 00:25:41.599 China has gone very aggressive recently. What 00:25:41.599 --> 00:25:44.299 have they done? China's 2023 guidelines are interesting 00:25:44.299 --> 00:25:47.799 because they sidestep the free speech debate. 00:25:47.920 --> 00:25:51.460 They specifically target cyber violence and doxing. 00:25:51.880 --> 00:25:54.559 But the enforcement mechanism is the platform 00:25:54.559 --> 00:25:57.980 itself. So they punish the companies? They hold 00:25:57.980 --> 00:26:00.859 the platforms like Weibo or TikTok. accountable 00:26:00.859 --> 00:26:03.599 if they fail to moderate and remove the abusive 00:26:03.599 --> 00:26:06.779 content. It forces the tech companies to be the 00:26:06.779 --> 00:26:10.079 police. Whereas in the U .S., Section 230 of 00:26:10.079 --> 00:26:12.619 the Communications Decency Act largely shields 00:26:12.619 --> 00:26:14.980 platforms from liability for what their users 00:26:14.980 --> 00:26:17.400 post. Exactly. It's a completely different philosophy. 00:26:17.579 --> 00:26:20.720 Yeah. You see the EU carving out a kind of middle 00:26:20.720 --> 00:26:23.500 ground, focusing heavily on things like the right 00:26:23.500 --> 00:26:25.650 to be forgotten. Which is the ability to force 00:26:25.650 --> 00:26:28.049 search engines to de -index that Google bomb 00:26:28.049 --> 00:26:29.869 we talked about earlier. Yes, to clean up your 00:26:29.869 --> 00:26:32.329 digital reputation. And they're also very strong 00:26:32.329 --> 00:26:34.670 on employer accountability. If you're being billied 00:26:34.670 --> 00:26:36.509 by a coworker on the company's Slack channel, 00:26:36.650 --> 00:26:38.630 the company is held liable for not providing 00:26:38.630 --> 00:26:41.589 a safe work environment. So if the law is slow 00:26:41.589 --> 00:26:45.619 and clunky, what actually works? We see tech 00:26:45.619 --> 00:26:48.180 solutions like that Back Off Bully app developed 00:26:48.180 --> 00:26:51.599 by teens in Connecticut to report bullying anonymously. 00:26:51.759 --> 00:26:54.640 But tech solutions feel like Band -Aids on a 00:26:54.640 --> 00:26:57.559 gaping wound. The tech can be a useful tool, 00:26:57.720 --> 00:27:00.880 but the solution has to be cultural. It comes 00:27:00.880 --> 00:27:03.279 down to the bystander. The person who sees it 00:27:03.279 --> 00:27:05.940 happening. We know from the research that 95 00:27:05.940 --> 00:27:08.900 % of teens on social media have witnessed cruel 00:27:08.900 --> 00:27:12.519 behavior online. 55 % say they witness it frequently. 00:27:13.099 --> 00:27:16.000 But the vast majority do nothing. It's the classic 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:18.779 bystander effect. Someone else will fix it. That 00:27:18.779 --> 00:27:21.680 or it's fear. Fear of becoming the next target 00:27:21.680 --> 00:27:24.240 if they intervene. But the research is also clear 00:27:24.240 --> 00:27:26.480 on this. When a bystander does intervene, even 00:27:26.480 --> 00:27:28.519 just by posting a simple comment like, hey, this 00:27:28.519 --> 00:27:31.619 isn't cool, the bullying stops within 10 seconds 00:27:31.619 --> 00:27:34.319 in over half of all cases. 10 seconds. That's 00:27:34.319 --> 00:27:36.279 incredible. The bully relies on the silence of 00:27:36.279 --> 00:27:38.900 the audience. They are performing. When the audience 00:27:38.900 --> 00:27:41.440 signals disapproval, the performance ends. It's 00:27:41.440 --> 00:27:43.220 like you're removing the oxygen from the fire. 00:27:43.500 --> 00:27:46.319 And the other piece of this is parents. The Canadian 00:27:46.319 --> 00:27:49.980 study during the early days of COVID was so counterintuitive. 00:27:50.440 --> 00:27:53.480 Screen time for kids went through the roof, but 00:27:53.480 --> 00:27:56.380 bullying rates didn't spike. The researchers 00:27:56.380 --> 00:27:58.519 speculated it was because parents were settling 00:27:58.519 --> 00:28:01.000 home. They were in the same house. They were 00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:02.740 looking over their kids' shoulders more often. 00:28:03.019 --> 00:28:05.500 Active supervision is still the best parental 00:28:05.500 --> 00:28:08.400 control software we have. So to try and wrap 00:28:08.400 --> 00:28:11.119 this all up, what we really have is a behavioral 00:28:11.119 --> 00:28:15.299 that is ancient and human. But it's being channeled 00:28:15.299 --> 00:28:18.099 through tools that are inhumanly efficient and 00:28:18.099 --> 00:28:20.680 permanent. That's a perfect summary. Cyberbullying 00:28:20.680 --> 00:28:23.619 is the ancient human impulse to ostracize and 00:28:23.619 --> 00:28:26.700 establish social hierarchies. But it's been amplified 00:28:26.700 --> 00:28:29.380 by the speed, the anonymity, and the permanence 00:28:29.380 --> 00:28:31.000 of the Internet. And as we leave the listeners 00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:33.319 today, you had a final provocative thought for 00:28:33.319 --> 00:28:35.599 us to mull over about the economy of bullying. 00:28:35.799 --> 00:28:37.799 I think we need to ask ourselves a really hard 00:28:37.799 --> 00:28:41.220 question. We look at things like hate raids on 00:28:41.220 --> 00:28:44.440 Twitch or massive Twitter pylons and we call 00:28:44.440 --> 00:28:48.200 it bullying. We call it harassment. But the algorithms 00:28:48.200 --> 00:28:50.599 that run these platforms, they have a different 00:28:50.599 --> 00:28:53.099 word for it. They call it engagement. Right. 00:28:53.240 --> 00:28:55.920 High conflict equals high clicks. We have built 00:28:55.920 --> 00:28:58.519 a digital economy that financially rewards conflict. 00:28:59.209 --> 00:29:01.769 The angriest, meanest, most controversial posts 00:29:01.769 --> 00:29:04.089 get the most views, the most shares, the most 00:29:04.089 --> 00:29:06.990 ad revenue. So the question is, have we accidentally 00:29:06.990 --> 00:29:10.049 built a society that actively incentivizes bullying? 00:29:10.589 --> 00:29:13.109 And if 90 % of us just ignore it when we see 00:29:13.109 --> 00:29:15.269 it, or if we click on the drama or share the 00:29:15.269 --> 00:29:18.289 outrage, are we just the silent audience in the 00:29:18.289 --> 00:29:21.089 stands applauding the gladiator match? That is 00:29:21.089 --> 00:29:23.309 a haunting note to end on. Are we funding the 00:29:23.309 --> 00:29:25.539 Coliseum with our own attention? Thank you for 00:29:25.539 --> 00:29:27.259 walking us through the very dark side of the 00:29:27.259 --> 00:29:29.799 web today. It's an important if difficult journey 00:29:29.799 --> 00:29:32.500 to take. Thank you. Take care of your digital 00:29:32.500 --> 00:29:35.160 selves out there, everyone. And maybe be the 00:29:35.160 --> 00:29:37.440 bystander that speaks up. We'll see you in the 00:29:37.440 --> 00:29:38.160 next Deep Dive.