Author(s): Andrei VLĂDESCU
Publication name: Romanian Intelligence Studies Review
Publisher name: Mihai Viteazul National Intelligence Academy
Publication type: Journal article
Publication date: December 31, 2018
Pagination:
Issue/ Volume: 19-20/2018
DOI:
Abstract
The exponential development of virtual collective communication favours not
only the personal development of individuals but also new ways of expressing negative
feelings and thoughts stimulated by the possibility of anonymity and real time
dissemination of the opinions. Actually any field of the social life can be reached by the
phenomenon of discursive aggression and online harassment, as well as by the launching
of rumours or expressing unfavourable opinions towards an individual, a social group
(regardless of the catalyst that underpinned its creation – ethnicity , religious,
professional or other) or a community.
The new form of harassment, called cyberbullying, can reach mass dimensions
when its support are social platforms that favour the rapid distribution of content,
adhesion and rallying to a cause, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube, and
the forms in which carry out include: repeated humiliation of a person; sending obscene
messages and offensive content; ridiculing by creating a bogus account or blog
containing biased information. From the same perspective, online aggression can have
multiple effects, manifested individually or together: diminishing the sense of security;
increasing anxiety; changes in mood or behaviour; feeding racial or religious prejudices.
On the other hand, whatever it is called cyberbullying, cyberstalking or hate
speech, online aggression can be speculated by entities interested in generating short-
term or medium-term social tensions or animosities among supporters of diverging
political trends, with direct impact on the occurrence of violent incidents, and in the long
term generate a fracture between governors and citizens, or even to a diminished the
cohesion of a nation, social disorder and dilution of the rule of law.
Keywords: discursive aggression, online harassment, cyberbullying, hate
speech.
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