Wilson Gavin: Screening out online hate

The pack mentality of internet bullies is back in the spotlight after a young man died.

Wilson Gavin, right, protesting against a drag queen reading to children at a library in Queensland.

When Wilson Gavin died at Chelmer train station in Brisbane on Monday morning — police said there were no suspicious circumstances — a lot had been going on in his life. There were many layers.

Gavin, an openly gay 21-year-old man with conservative political views and an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage, had been at forefront of a noisy protest at a library on Sunday.

He and colleagues confronted drag artists doing story time for children, chanting “drag queens are not for kids”.

The incident was filmed and the footage posted on social media. From there a social media discussion that began about the appropriateness of the protest rapidly descended into a pile-on.

Some Twitter commentary simply disagreed with the protest, describing the protesters, many members of the Young LNP, as homophobic. But others went further, saying the footage made them feel “stabby”, or that the protesters had “hittable” faces.

This was the online environment Gavin faced within hours of the protest, at which he stood front and centre, becoming its face.

Fighting bullies

Regardless of where one stands on a library program in which drag artists read stories to children, Gavin’s death and its context have again put online behaviour and cyber-bullying back in the ­spotlight.

Cyber Safety Minister Paul Fletcher has already flagged ­federal government changes to support those affected by cyber-bullying. Last month, Fletcher outlined a public consultation on a new ­online safety act that is proposed to include a new take-down and reporting scheme to tackle cyber abuse directed at adults. Current legislation applies to children only.

“When people interact in the physical town square, they take it for granted that the rule of law applies,” Fletcher said last month.

“If they are assaulted, or defrauded or otherwise harmed, they can go to the police and seek ­assistance, or go to court and seek redress. People expect the same in the digital town square. After all, this is the environment in which each Australian spends on average 1114 hours of their life each year.”

Wilson Gavin appearing in a video in support of the No campaign against same-sex marriage.

The discussion paper notes any new scheme for cyber abuse of adults would have a higher burden of proof than for children. It would focus on “serious instances of online harassment and humiliation, cyberstalking, including threats to cause harm, or online abuse experienced as part of domestic and family violence”. The content must be considered by a reasonable person to be intended to cause distress or serious harm, and be regarded as menacing, harassing or offensive.

After Gavin’s death became public, many who had commented about him earlier called for respect and consideration of his family amid the tragedy and compassionate reflection on his mental state and the broader issues at play.

But, as is the way of much social media, the vitriol didn’t end.

“What about all the LGBT people who were pushed to suicide by #WilsonGavin and his right wing cronies,” read one tweet.

“Good riddance,” read another.

Pack mentality

Without letting the death get in the way of a Twitter stoush, the debate about the appropriateness of drag artists reading to children, and about those who protest against it, continues.

Nigel Phair, director of UNSW Canberra Cyber, a university program specialising in the technical and social aspects of the online world, says the atmosphere on Twitter is definitely negative.

“There is a pile-on mentality, for sure. If something happens, they feel absolutely free to pile on,” Phair says.

“It is a pack mentality, and people start frothing at the mouth and going further and further into threats and intimidation.

“It’s the anonymity that drives it. They bring their own biases and prejudices, and mightn’t understand that their words, which they might consider just a point of view, are actually abusive, threatening and harassing in the eyes of those they are targeting.”

Combating cyber-bullying requires an end to treating online and offline as different spaces, says Curtin University associate professor of internet studies Tama Leaver.

“We have to stop thinking of social media as the exception to the rule, it is the real world and it has real-world consequences. Whatever we learn about bullying face-to-face should apply online as well,” he says.

Social media’s immediacy and intimacy are a “double-edged sword”, Leaver adds.

“When it works well it’s great, but when it goes wrong it’s incredibly destructive. In the cases of online disagreements, we have a tendency to react with our hearts rather than our heads and the anger is undiluted by the time it gets to the recipient.”

Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, will be responsible for the adult cyber safety regime if and when it is ­enacted.

Currently she does not have formal legislative power to remove adult cyber abuse.

Inman Grant wasn’t commenting directly on Gavin on Tuesday, saying: “While we may not yet know or understand the full spectrum of circumstances leading up to this tragedy, this is another devastating reminder that hurtful words and actions can have very real and devastating impacts on young people.

“Sadly, we know that technology and social media can enable targeted vitriol, fuelled by hatred and prejudice, which can infiltrate the lives of victims and perpetuate abuse at any time and any place. A social media ‘pile-on’ can be especially harmful.”

But she urges “extreme caution” in drawing a direct causal correlation between online abuse and suicide. “Research shows that suicide is in fact a complex, individualised tragedy with multiple contributing factors, of which online abuse may be one. And we want to ensure that those at risk are encouraged to seek professional help,” she says.

 

Loose moderators

Inman Grant encourages those experiencing online abuse to block or mute it and to report it to the relevant service or platform.

But Leaver says social media platforms have varying degrees of mitigation strategies in place, and Twitter in particular struggles to moderate discourse because messages that contain bullying language rely on context and can be difficult for algorithms to pick up.

“Twitter perhaps sees itself as the ‘voice of people’ and users are largely able to express themselves without rules, meaning a ‘pile-on’ can happen very quickly without people necessarily thinking through the impact of their words.

“The platform does have some loose moderation aspects, filtering certain words and images, but these are generally acted on retrospectively after the immediate impact of the harmful words has already taken place.”

Phair says there is so much value for people in the social connections made on social media, and if we are able to be good citizens in our day-to-day lives, why shouldn’t we be in our online lives.

“The upshot is that it all comes down to trust and safety online,” Phair says. “There is goodness out there; we need to rebalance the cesspit side of social media against the nirvana.”

If you or someone you know may be at risk of suicide call Lifeline (13 11 14), the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467) or Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800).