Bullying the Bullies on Social Media
Vigilante justice may be easier to dole out from behind a screen, but it doesn’t make it more righteous
Last week, two young women felt the full force of the internet’s wrath. A video featuring them at a baseball game in Houston went viral on TikTok after being posted by @jackielabonita on April 22, and has since been viewed more than 45 million times. In it, Jackie is seen posing for photos while two young women behind her make rude gestures—and appear to call Jackie “lame.” Jackie posted the video with the caption, “Watch my confidence disappear after these random girls make fun of me for taking pics” and added, “Please be nice #meangirls #meangirlvibes.”
The video exploded in popularity, sparking days of discussion—and more concerningly, a fair amount of vigilantism. Users quickly began searching for the identities of the young women, and after identifying them, shared their information on TikTok, including guesses as to where they were employed. This led to multiple real estate businesses in the Houston area being review bombed on Google and Facebook because of speculation that one of the young women worked at one of them. One TikTok user went so far as to find a presentation one of the young women gave in high school and share it with others on the app.
More troubling was the amount of harassment one TikTok user received after being falsely identified as one of the “mean girls” by the angry TikTok mob. Jocelyn Carreno posted a video on April 23 in which she details the harassment she had received in the previous 24 hours as a result of her video appearing in the search results when users searched for the original video. Nasty comments flooded in from users assuming she was one of the young women in question, with people insulting her appearance. TikTok also restricted her account—although it’s not clear whether that was because of something she’d done or because people were sending in false reports about her account.
The story spread so far that even Cardi B weighed in, tweeting, “I would of put that ring to use,” referring to the giant, jewel-crusted ring seen on Jackie’s finger in the video. Ironically, users who made videos about “bullying awareness” were some of the fastest to participate in the doxxing and harassment. One video, which has over 4 million views and sports the caption, “We do NOT condone bullying!!!” shared negative reviews of one of the targeted real estate companies—as if this were proof of a successful anti-bullying campaign and not a case of review bombing. That user continued, “let this be a lesson learned to everyone who has bullying tendencies, you are risking EVERYTHING for being a shitty person. You can lose your job, break your friendships, families etc. please THINK before you decide to act out because of YOUR OWN insecurities.”
Eventually, a backlash to the backlash began to mount, with some users voicing concerns about the self-proclaimed anti-bullying activists and their methods. While many agreed that the young women’s behavior was unkind, others defended their right to attend a baseball game without being featured in someone else’s videos, arguing that their response was a reasonable defense against the invasion of privacy. Many more people agreed that their behavior wasn’t ideal, but it also wasn’t villainous enough to justify attempts to dox them or get them fired.
Thus, we arrive at the crux of the matter: What accountability looks like on the internet. Incidents like this one, and also last year’s West Elm Caleb debacle, raise a myriad of thorny questions around accountability and vigilante justice. What is the appropriate response to an incident of mean-girl behavior caught on camera? At what point do the thousands of people seeking to get two young women fired in the name of anti-bullying become bullies themselves? Are people’s reasons for engaging in online mobs altruistic or are they simply venting their own frustrations?
These are complex ethical questions ones that will undoubtedly continue to surface as long as knee-jerk calls for vigilante justice go unchallenged on social media. The problem isn’t necessarily new—a decade ago, Reddit misidentified one of the suspects involved in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, pointing the finger at a student who had died before the bombing even took place. But today’s algorithms are more sophisticated, quickly inducing people into a self-righteous frenzy and making this kind of online vigilantism that much easier.
In a follow-up video posted the last weekend in April, Jackie shared that she and the two other young women voluntarily met under mediated circumstances following the debacle, where the young women apologized to her. Jackie also stated that even though her feelings were hurt, there was “no need for more hurt,” and said that she did not condone the threats, bullying, or harassment directed at the two young women in her video.
Apologies are a start, and Jackie took the high road by trying to diffuse the angry internet mob. I don’t have the fix for these deep human problems that are exacerbated and amplified by most social media. But combatting online vigilantism starts with people examining and attempting to curb their worst impulses, and with platforms refusing to push content that encourages acts like doxxing or review bombing for attention dollars.
May 2, 2023
·
4 min read
Bullying the Bullies on Social Media
Vigilante justice may be easier to dole out from behind a screen, but it doesn’t make it more righteous
Last week, two young women felt the full force of the internet’s wrath. A video featuring them at a baseball game in Houston went viral on TikTok after being posted by @jackielabonita on April 22, and has since been viewed more than 45 million times. In it, Jackie is seen posing for photos while two young women behind her make rude gestures—and appear to call Jackie “lame.” Jackie posted the video with the caption, “Watch my confidence disappear after these random girls make fun of me for taking pics” and added, “Please be nice #meangirls #meangirlvibes.”
The video exploded in popularity, sparking days of discussion—and more concerningly, a fair amount of vigilantism. Users quickly began searching for the identities of the young women, and after identifying them, shared their information on TikTok, including guesses as to where they were employed. This led to multiple real estate businesses in the Houston area being review bombed on Google and Facebook because of speculation that one of the young women worked at one of them. One TikTok user went so far as to find a presentation one of the young women gave in high school and share it with others on the app.
More troubling was the amount of harassment one TikTok user received after being falsely identified as one of the “mean girls” by the angry TikTok mob. Jocelyn Carreno posted a video on April 23 in which she details the harassment she had received in the previous 24 hours as a result of her video appearing in the search results when users searched for the original video. Nasty comments flooded in from users assuming she was one of the young women in question, with people insulting her appearance. TikTok also restricted her account—although it’s not clear whether that was because of something she’d done or because people were sending in false reports about her account.
The story spread so far that even Cardi B weighed in, tweeting, “I would of put that ring to use,” referring to the giant, jewel-crusted ring seen on Jackie’s finger in the video. Ironically, users who made videos about “bullying awareness” were some of the fastest to participate in the doxxing and harassment. One video, which has over 4 million views and sports the caption, “We do NOT condone bullying!!!” shared negative reviews of one of the targeted real estate companies—as if this were proof of a successful anti-bullying campaign and not a case of review bombing. That user continued, “let this be a lesson learned to everyone who has bullying tendencies, you are risking EVERYTHING for being a shitty person. You can lose your job, break your friendships, families etc. please THINK before you decide to act out because of YOUR OWN insecurities.”
Eventually, a backlash to the backlash began to mount, with some users voicing concerns about the self-proclaimed anti-bullying activists and their methods. While many agreed that the young women’s behavior was unkind, others defended their right to attend a baseball game without being featured in someone else’s videos, arguing that their response was a reasonable defense against the invasion of privacy. Many more people agreed that their behavior wasn’t ideal, but it also wasn’t villainous enough to justify attempts to dox them or get them fired.
Thus, we arrive at the crux of the matter: What accountability looks like on the internet. Incidents like this one, and also last year’s West Elm Caleb debacle, raise a myriad of thorny questions around accountability and vigilante justice. What is the appropriate response to an incident of mean-girl behavior caught on camera? At what point do the thousands of people seeking to get two young women fired in the name of anti-bullying become bullies themselves? Are people’s reasons for engaging in online mobs altruistic or are they simply venting their own frustrations?
These are complex ethical questions ones that will undoubtedly continue to surface as long as knee-jerk calls for vigilante justice go unchallenged on social media. The problem isn’t necessarily new—a decade ago, Reddit misidentified one of the suspects involved in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, pointing the finger at a student who had died before the bombing even took place. But today’s algorithms are more sophisticated, quickly inducing people into a self-righteous frenzy and making this kind of online vigilantism that much easier.
In a follow-up video posted the last weekend in April, Jackie shared that she and the two other young women voluntarily met under mediated circumstances following the debacle, where the young women apologized to her. Jackie also stated that even though her feelings were hurt, there was “no need for more hurt,” and said that she did not condone the threats, bullying, or harassment directed at the two young women in her video.
Apologies are a start, and Jackie took the high road by trying to diffuse the angry internet mob. I don’t have the fix for these deep human problems that are exacerbated and amplified by most social media. But combatting online vigilantism starts with people examining and attempting to curb their worst impulses, and with platforms refusing to push content that encourages acts like doxxing or review bombing for attention dollars.
May 2, 2023
·
4 min read
Bullying the Bullies on Social Media
Vigilante justice may be easier to dole out from behind a screen, but it doesn’t make it more righteous
Last week, two young women felt the full force of the internet’s wrath. A video featuring them at a baseball game in Houston went viral on TikTok after being posted by @jackielabonita on April 22, and has since been viewed more than 45 million times. In it, Jackie is seen posing for photos while two young women behind her make rude gestures—and appear to call Jackie “lame.” Jackie posted the video with the caption, “Watch my confidence disappear after these random girls make fun of me for taking pics” and added, “Please be nice #meangirls #meangirlvibes.”
The video exploded in popularity, sparking days of discussion—and more concerningly, a fair amount of vigilantism. Users quickly began searching for the identities of the young women, and after identifying them, shared their information on TikTok, including guesses as to where they were employed. This led to multiple real estate businesses in the Houston area being review bombed on Google and Facebook because of speculation that one of the young women worked at one of them. One TikTok user went so far as to find a presentation one of the young women gave in high school and share it with others on the app.
More troubling was the amount of harassment one TikTok user received after being falsely identified as one of the “mean girls” by the angry TikTok mob. Jocelyn Carreno posted a video on April 23 in which she details the harassment she had received in the previous 24 hours as a result of her video appearing in the search results when users searched for the original video. Nasty comments flooded in from users assuming she was one of the young women in question, with people insulting her appearance. TikTok also restricted her account—although it’s not clear whether that was because of something she’d done or because people were sending in false reports about her account.
The story spread so far that even Cardi B weighed in, tweeting, “I would of put that ring to use,” referring to the giant, jewel-crusted ring seen on Jackie’s finger in the video. Ironically, users who made videos about “bullying awareness” were some of the fastest to participate in the doxxing and harassment. One video, which has over 4 million views and sports the caption, “We do NOT condone bullying!!!” shared negative reviews of one of the targeted real estate companies—as if this were proof of a successful anti-bullying campaign and not a case of review bombing. That user continued, “let this be a lesson learned to everyone who has bullying tendencies, you are risking EVERYTHING for being a shitty person. You can lose your job, break your friendships, families etc. please THINK before you decide to act out because of YOUR OWN insecurities.”
Eventually, a backlash to the backlash began to mount, with some users voicing concerns about the self-proclaimed anti-bullying activists and their methods. While many agreed that the young women’s behavior was unkind, others defended their right to attend a baseball game without being featured in someone else’s videos, arguing that their response was a reasonable defense against the invasion of privacy. Many more people agreed that their behavior wasn’t ideal, but it also wasn’t villainous enough to justify attempts to dox them or get them fired.
Thus, we arrive at the crux of the matter: What accountability looks like on the internet. Incidents like this one, and also last year’s West Elm Caleb debacle, raise a myriad of thorny questions around accountability and vigilante justice. What is the appropriate response to an incident of mean-girl behavior caught on camera? At what point do the thousands of people seeking to get two young women fired in the name of anti-bullying become bullies themselves? Are people’s reasons for engaging in online mobs altruistic or are they simply venting their own frustrations?
These are complex ethical questions ones that will undoubtedly continue to surface as long as knee-jerk calls for vigilante justice go unchallenged on social media. The problem isn’t necessarily new—a decade ago, Reddit misidentified one of the suspects involved in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, pointing the finger at a student who had died before the bombing even took place. But today’s algorithms are more sophisticated, quickly inducing people into a self-righteous frenzy and making this kind of online vigilantism that much easier.
In a follow-up video posted the last weekend in April, Jackie shared that she and the two other young women voluntarily met under mediated circumstances following the debacle, where the young women apologized to her. Jackie also stated that even though her feelings were hurt, there was “no need for more hurt,” and said that she did not condone the threats, bullying, or harassment directed at the two young women in her video.
Apologies are a start, and Jackie took the high road by trying to diffuse the angry internet mob. I don’t have the fix for these deep human problems that are exacerbated and amplified by most social media. But combatting online vigilantism starts with people examining and attempting to curb their worst impulses, and with platforms refusing to push content that encourages acts like doxxing or review bombing for attention dollars.
May 2, 2023
·
4 min read
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Subscribe to our weekly newsletter so you never miss a story.
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Subscribe to our weekly newsletter so you never miss a story.
