\n<\/p>\n
Perhaps part of the reason doxxing is hard to eradicate is that some doxxers genuinely believe they hold the moral high ground and are doing something good for society, Assoc Prof Lee from SUSS said.<\/span><\/p>\n However, Dr Chew from IPS cautioned that good intentions, such as calling out alleged wrongdoing, do not automatically make a post harmless or lawful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This remains true even when such posts are shared in private groups, including communities where women exchange information about men whom they have dated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “The risk here is that peer-to-peer warning becomes trial by social media,” Dr Chew said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Once names or photographs are sitting beside allegations, who checks whether those allegations are accurate? Does the person get to respond? What happens when something false gets copied out of the group?”<\/span><\/p>\n Assoc Prof Lee said that part of this tendency for an online audience to slip into vigilante mode stems from how social media platforms are set up.<\/span><\/p>\n The “participatory architecture” of social media platforms transforms audiences from passive consumers into active investigators.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When a post contains enough contextual clues \u2014 a neighbourhood, a timeframe, a relationship description \u2014 platform users can, and often do, collaborate to fill in the gaps.<\/span><\/p>\n “This is the ‘crowdsourced surveillance’ dynamic, which can be further enhanced by easily accessible online technology or AI tools,” Assoc Prof Lee said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “On top of that, the algorithmic amplification of emotionally charged content ensures that such posts reach far beyond the original poster’s intended audience.”<\/span><\/p>\n A video that a few hundred followers might have seen in a pre-algorithmic era can now reach hundreds of thousands within days, Assoc Prof Lee added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The scale of exposure vastly exceeds what the original poster may have anticipated or intended.<\/span><\/p>\nDO EXISTING PENALTIES HAVE ENOUGH TEETH?<\/h2>\n