Social Safety in the Real World and Cyber World - Essay Example

SOCIAL SAFETY: SOLVING CRIMES AND THE RISE OF DIGITAL VIGILANTES STUDENT NAME PROFESSOR’S NAME COURSE TITLE DATE The onset of the digital era especially after the invention of computers and the internet has brought about new societal issues and this includes the issue of safety amongst users of the innovation. The world’s exposure, through a little push of a small button, enables a person to connect easily to millions of people at any single time. The issue of safety amongst users stems from the fact that social media has emerged as a platform for either to condemn or to support a particular cause. Further, the influence of technology on society, technological innovation through use of mobile phones has severe implications on crime and crime levels and at the same time, it infringes the private rights of individuals. Some of the social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and FaceWatch contribute either positively or negatively in solving crimes. Moreover, even in the cyber society, there are people who are likely to carry on their criminal activities. This paper will discuss the issues of social safety, especially in relation to solving crimes, how social media contributes to the rise of digital vigilantes, the ethical considerations, the current frameworks and the future trends and prospects in addressing social safety on social media. Social safety in the digital era is an expansive undertaking since most citizens in different states are no longer participating “terrestrially” in the enforcement of laws, but are in “the third space” the internet, which falls outside the historical geographical boundaries (Hughes, 2007). Humans have a cemented interaction through creation of social relations with the world to even creating digital communities, virtual villages and cities to substitute the real physical communities (Hughes, 2007). This interconnectedness of networked individuals brings about groups of activists who usually respond to certain conduct on social media in a particular way. Depending on the nature of the event, these groups are known to be effective in terms of condemning the actions of an individual, the stalk suspects, hack the accounts of website in order to disclose information on social media about the activities or secrets of a particular person. Cyber crime though it occurs in the digital space, the consequences have an impact on real people and that is why the on-line communities need to have a say in the condemnation of such kind of behavior. The rise of digital vigilantes, a networked society that openly condemns social evils is able to bring this people to justice especially in instances where the crime would have gone unpunished (Castells, 2010). In most instances, the group works on their own, but on other occasions, they collaborate with law enforcers in arresting a perpetrator. Mobile phone technology and smart phones has made digital vigilantes more efficient since there is a higher chance of disclosing perpetrators and an individual can easily post a video on YouTube, the vigilante gets wind of it and it goes viral. The Boston Marathon bombings for instance attracted both negative and positive vigilantes on twitter either supporting or condemning the act of the teenager. The vigilante system in cyber regulation is a self-regulation aspect of communities in the cyber world that use this way to usurp justice, through peer pressure and ostracism in order to maintain social order and evoke sympathy to victims (Williams, 2006). Vigilante in the state of Ohio for instance, the social media played a role in the expose of a rape victim (Pearson, 2013). In this case, some boys posted a video of a young girl dangling from a window stating that the girl might have been dead since she was not flinching (Pearson, 2013). The video posted on social media acts as part of the evidence against the juvenile offenders charged with rape and the illegal use of minor in a nudity-oriented material (Pearson, 2013). The act of the boys in Ohio has drawn vigilantes in the form of activist attackers with someone realizing information on the town, the whole football team and that people need to come clean on what happened that night. The vigilante says that football teams are treated like demi-gods and men are turning to rape as a game of sport to pass their athletic abilities (Pearson, 2013). In this case, without the exposes of social media, the crime would have gone unpunished since there would not have been any evidence to prove of the girl’s rape and the actions of the football team. According to Burns (2011), the revolutionary potential presented by social media promotes citizenship participation in response to fighting crime. In response to “WikiLeaks”, especially by the Anonymous actions a “vigilante group” was a clear demonstration of how a network of people or groups can easily ‘bypass or leapfrog administrative and organizational hurdles” (Burns, 2011). The vigilante groups though existing in the cyber or virtual world, have the capacity to positively impact on the actions of the state and individual especially if the action requires mass condemnation. Social media in the promotion of social safety has increasingly become a tool for security enforcers to gather information on crimes, the victim and even the perpetrators of such crime (Kelly, 2012). In New York , Melvin Colon faces murder charges, weapons and a narcotic charge after posting photos of himself making gang signs and one of his friend agreeing to share private photos of him. The rise of social vigilante is no longer confined to posting statuses that condemn acts or creating pages to condemn an act but one innovator has created the Connected to the Case website that uses the Facebook platform for crowd-sourced crime solving (Rigg, 2012). This platform enables the users to inform authorities on crimes that occur near their proximity, information about the perpetrator and share the information. This demonstrates that social media and crime busters can collaborate on a social platform to fight crime. The fourth amendment of the United States Constitution protects the individual rights of privacy. That is an individual is entitled to rights of privacy, however, the social media has brought about the issues of discerning what is private and what is not private in relation to crime. The social media despite the existence of the fourth amendment is used by criminals in a way that they talk and brag about the crimes they committed and got away with. The courts in maneuvering around the privacy rights state that as long as the information is in the public domain, then private rights can no longer be invoked as a bar to criminal prosecution (Kelly, 2012). Further, it is arguable to state that once a citizen shares their own private information with a third party such as Twitter, then there is no protection under the fourth amendment (Kelly, 2012). The role played by the social media in discussing about events occurring in the world is indescribable. In trying to ensure social safety, social media through different platforms allows for law enforcement despite cyberspace not being within the physical ambits of law enforcers, it prevents crime and at the same time allows for monitoring criminal activities (Marshall, 2014). However, despite the existence of vigilante groups in social media aiding in fighting cyber crime, there are dissenting voices who argue that crowd-sourcing in the fight against crime is unwelcome. For instance, more recently people using social media posts wanted ads for instance the use of Face Watch in London an application (hereinafter “app”) where information on society’s worst offenders are posted, it creates a new concept of criminal justice. The use of the app though aimed at crowd-sourcing crime fighting crime, people are more likely to walk around pointing accusing fingers on each other as criminals (Badger, 2012). The argument stems from the fact that people are likely to misidentify others as criminals since it creates an environment where everyone is suspicious (Badger, 2012). An important ethical issue that relates to fighting crime through crowd sourcing or the internet vigilante system is the ethical issues that surround its legality or morality. Ethics generally refers to whether an action or an act is right or wrong depending on its moral underpinnings and societal views. The ‘WikiLeaks affair’, was a virtual warfare between the state and an individual that sought to disclose the actions of a state in covering up certain alleged secret activities (Karatzogianni, 2012). The saga exposed the role of the vigilante especially on the initial “vigilante response” by those allied to the state and on the security issues relating to private information (Ludlow, 2010). The “Wiki Leaks” though not a direct product of social media but the acts of the state, it drew support and criticism in social media in relation to the transparency and the privacy issues of the state. One Heather Brooke (2011) suggested that sharing of information could either be a tool that empowers internet users or act as a way of spying others. It is considerable to infer that the social media though fostering social interactions, it poses a challenge since individual will constantly fear surveillance of their actions by the state or law enforcement agency (Rosen, 2011). Freedom of speech is an essential aspect of humans, and as of right, every individual has the right to give his opinions regarding certain important issues in society. Freedom of speech is a right to every vigilante individual participating in condemning a social evil, however, the ethical considerations stem from the fact that “to what extent is freedom of speech protected in cases where the freedom of speech is abused”. According to the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, she asserts that the internet is a public state in the 21st Century it is the world’s town square, the marketplace, nightclub, coffeehouse, and a place where one can pursue their activities, hold private conversations (Clinton, 2011). This are considered only as ‘spaces’ that serve no particular agenda and therefore there needs to be limit on the users freedom of speech either through creation of effective cyber laws (Morozov, 2011). It is imperative that one therefore reasonably posit that the digital era has brought about the possibilities of re-ordering the society in future, since there is a potential that the cyber world can create disconnections between enforcers of national security and security on social media. This implies that the society needs to formulate new forms of freedoms such as freedom of speech and privacy (Sterner, 2011). In determining the place of law enforcement agencies in ensuring social safety and vigilante in fighting crime, one needs to understand the ethics of the police in accessing private information and whether it ridicules or ushers the death of privacy. Ethically, the police is the arm of the state that seeks to ensure that there are no issues of insecurity. However, if their actions imply that there is no level of secrecy or privacy of an individual, then it means that the fourth amendment is inconsequential. Ethically, there needs to be a borderline between fighting crime and infringement of privacy rights in fighting cyber crimes and crimes that affects humans in the real world (Benkler, 2011). In conclusion, the future prospects of social safety especially both in the real world in cyber world, entirely depends on how well the law enforcement agencies embrace social media as a tool of fighting crime, gather evidence, monitor criminal activities and improve policing. The role of vigilantes however, cannot go unrecognized since in many instances they address social evil, condemn the perpetrators of such crime and assist in fighting crime in the real world. However, the ethical issues that a bound to arise in use of vigilante in cyber world to fight crime border on ethical issues such as the protection of privacy rights, whether individuals have a right to interfere with how an individual acts on the internet and the legality of such actions taken by this groups. It is arguable that vigilantes and social safety in the web is likely to create a society whereby security is the daily norm and individuals are likely to watch each other. Overall, there is a consensus that there needs to be a watchdog in the cyber world to ensure that the society is safe and that crime does not go unpunished. REFERENCES Badger, E. (2012). How the Cutting Edge in Crowdsourced Crime Fighting Could Do More Harm than Good. The Atlantic Cities Place Matters. Retrieved from: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/technology/2012/07/how-cutting-edge-crowdsourced-crime-fighting-could-do-more-harm-good/2626/ Brooke, H. (2011). The Revolution will be Digitised: Dispatches from the Information war. London: William Heinemann Castells, M. (2000). The Rise of the Network Society, The Information Age: Economy, Soceity and Culture. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Clinton, H.R. (2010). Remarks on Internet Freedom. Washington DC. Retrieved from http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/01/135519.htm Huey, L., Nhan, J. & Broll, R. (2012). ‘Uppity civilians’ and ‘cyber-vigilantes’: The Role of the General Public in policing cyber-crime. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 12(1), pp. 48-60 Hughes, G. (2007). The Politics of Crime and Community. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Karatzogianni, A. (2012). WikiLeaks Affects: Ideology, Conflict and the Revolutionary Virtual. In Karatzogianni, A. & Kunstan, A. (eds). Digital Cultures and the Politics of Emotion: Feelings, Affect and Technological Change. Palgrave: Macmillan Kelly, H. (2012). Police Embrace Social Media as Crime Fighting Tool. CNM, Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/30/tech/social-media/fighting-crime-social-media/index.html Ludlow, P. (2010). WikiLeaks and Hacktivist Culture. The Nation Marshall, M.A. (2014). Social Media Solutions Specific to You. The Police Chief The Professional Voice of Law Enforcement. Retrieved from: http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&issue_id=62011&category_ID=2 Morozov, E. (2011). The net delusion: The dark side of internet freedom. 1st ed. Public Affairs Pearson, M. (2013). Social Media casts spotlight on Ohio Rape case. CNN. Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/03/justice/ohio-rape-online-video/index.html Rigg, J. (2012). Connected to the Case to Use Facebook for crowd-sourced crime. Endgadget Retrieved from http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/01/connected-to-the-case/ Rosen, N. (2010). Wikileaks: Assange and Death of Privacy. New York: Andre Duetsch Sterner, E. (2011). WikiLeaks and Cyberspace Cultures in Conflict. Marshall Policy Outlook. Williams, M. (2006).Virtually Criminal: Crime Deviance and Regulation Online. London: Routledge Read More