17.8. Design Activity on Harassment#

17.8.1. Activity#

Look through a social media feed (e.g., a subreddit, Youtube comments, etc.), and look for examples of something that you would consider harassment (or you can remember an incident of harassment you’ve seen or heard about).

Then answer the following questions:

  • What features of the social media platform that you considered were being used for harassment?

  • How are those same features used in non-harassing ways on that platform?

  • How might you change those features to try to reduce harassment?

  • What good uses of those features might be lost or reduced by those changes?

  • How do you balance these different concerns?

17.8.2. Reflection Questions#

  • What responsibility do you think social media platforms should have for reducing individual and crowd harassment?

  • Should social media platforms consider whether harassment is justified in some instances? How would they judge this?