How can internet witch hunts be avoided?

Because of their online nature, internet witch hunts are very difficult to prevent. There is a fine line between discussion and witch hunt. And on top of that, in the United States, the government is unable to simply make this type of speech illegal because of the freedom of speech and the freedom of press which are included in the constitution.

Do we have a gap in our judicial system? Several bills have attempted to put an end to internet witch hunts, however they all fail to prevent cyberstalking, a key component of a cyber witch hunt. The other problem is that with millions of users across thousands of websites, who gets prosecuted for the attack? Is the website to blame?

So if the law is unable to prevent this from happening, what can we do?

Where laws fall short, websites and the companies that run them can better regulate the forums that they operate. Websites can use tools like a terms of service agreement or moderation to regulate users’ content before or as they post it.

Moderators:

Moderation could be implemented through the use of human administrators who read through the content posted to the site and approve or delete content based on the site policies. The website could even implement a flagging system in which a user could report witch hunting as they see it. However, this method isn’t possible with all sites as some have too small a workforce or too few resources.

Robotic Algorithms:

An alternative method would be to use robotic algorithms which analyze the public conversations people are having and flag content that violates site policies. The problem with this method is that users find ways around the bots to avoid detection. And the bots could falsely flag a post that uses the keywords in a non-harmful way.

This system is currently the best one in place. A combination of user flags and robotic filters can prevent most witch hunts from taking place without breaking laws. But moderation works primarily through censorship, so in order to maintain a free internet, users must make the final contribution.

What can individuals do to prevent witch hunts from happening escalating?

Users should learn on their own how to recognize and avoid witch hunts. By educating themselves and by policing their own content, users can avoid contributing these harmful attacks.

Witch hunting primarily occurs when large groups of people contribute small amounts of fuel to the fire. When each user reduces their own contribution, websites’ moderators and algorithms can prevent and control witch hunts without a great deal of censorship.