Moral Panics: The Vexes of Virtue

Moral Panics

Morals: Standards of behaviour; principles of rights & wrongs, the lesser or greater evil.

Panic: Sudden, uncontrollable fear or anxiety, often causing wildly irrational behaviour.

History

The Idea of a moral panic is someone or something evil/negative which is threatening the normal way of life. Historically these include witch hunts between the 1400's-1700's, communist propaganda & spies amidst the Cold War, anti-semitism and the hunt for Jewish people in Nazi Germany during WW2. 

Before the 1990's, moral panics were spread by word of mouth, rumors and tabloid journalism however, with the introduction of the internet, misinformation and moral panics can be spread like wildfire by masses of people misinformed or uneducated on the subject. This has become almost synonymous with mass hysteria.

Stanley Cohen (1972): Stanley Cohen created the 'moral panics' theory in media, where demographics of people would be demonized by the media and subsequent groups due to media influence to be viewed negatively. These groups include racial and sexual minorities, religious groups and teenagers.

Social Media Moral Panics

• Killer Clowns in 2016 caused mass panic through an uprising of people dressing in clown costumes to scare and conduct illegal, aggressive activity toward pedestrians late at night. This subsequently led people to fear going out late at night.

• The epidemic where fans of the unreleased sequel to the titular video game 'Hollow Knight': 'Hollow Knight Silksong' collectively pretended that the game had already released and continuously posted fake screenshots and reviews on social media sites like Reddit which simultaneously misinformed audiences interested in the product and gave the game's community a bad reputation.

• Amidst Covid 19, people feared a toilet paper shortage due to misinformation which led to a mass panic of people buying toilet paper, leading to an actual shortage

• The Slender Man (and Momo) epidemic was an internet led panic where accounts posing as The Slender Man and Momo would tell users to commit suicide.

• Violent video games and Dungeons & Dragons led people to believe their children were conducting satanic activity and due to violent influence, commit illegal activity. The same is true for music artists: Eminem and Slipknot.

• Social Media influencers have led to influences of dangerous trends like the 'tide pod challenge' or 'bone smashing'; also leading a man to drink bleach. Gaming influencers also encouraged people to stay inside to play video games.

• 5G was believed to be Chinese spy-ware which caused people to burn down 5G towers; people also believed 5G spread Covid because of this.

• Fake News and products created by deep fakes and AI such as the Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory scam in Scotland (2023) which used AI generated art to scam people to buy tickets.

How has social media itself been used as a source of moral panic?

The use of social media and the prevalence of it on day to day life has caused issues with:

• Body Image
• Social Isolation
• Like replacing actual interaction
• Social media popularity image
• Social media image rights/distribution
• Anonymity & exploitation
• AI videos
• Polarising topics
• Negative influence/misinformation (hypodermic syringe)
• Lack of real interaction/interest with the real world; fallacy for appearance
• Worsening attention spans/scrolling

Censorship & Control

Censorship & Control

Key Principle: There is currently no single body or organization which regulates social media.

Social media does fall into within pre-existing regulations/UK laws such as:

• Online Safety Act (Jan 2024)
• Data Protection Act (1995)
• Libel
• Race Relations Act
• Criminal Justice & Public Order Act 
• Race & Religious Hatred Act
• Criminal Justice & Immigration Act

New Online Safety Bill (2024)

The online safety bill enforces new duties on social media platforms to make their sites safer for children and adults to take down illegal content and implement new systems to provide additional safety (e.g. age verifications, kids versions of apps like YouTube Kids). This act was due to Molly Russel, a 14-year-old who died in 2019 due to harmful social media content like suicide where due to the algorithm, this content would continuously appear. Ofcom are now the independent regulator of online safety. 

Censored content for children would include:

• Pornography
• Promotion of Suicide
• Eating Disorders
• Anything based on criminality

Priority Offences Include:

• Child sexual abuse material
• Terrorist Content
• Revenge or Extreme Pornography
• Threats to Kill

This act requires this kind of content to be proactively targeted and removed.

For adults (including children by proxy), harmful content related to: suicide, self-harm and abuse targeted at protected characteristics under the Equality Act (2010) such as age, sex or race.

Cyber-Flashing and Taking/Sharing of Explicit Images

Sites which include any pornographic content will now require age verification. 

Sending unsolicited (explicit or nude) is now an illegal act. It is also illegal to share explicit images that you have been sent or you have sent. 

In order to combat child sexual abuse material (CSAM) Ofcom have been empowered to order a messaging service (e.g. WhatsApp, Snapchat, Instagram messages or Messenger) to use 'accredited technology' to look for and take down such content. Social Media owners must give access to your data/messages to authorities if you are suspected of being involved with CSAM. 

How Social Media Content Posting Can Violate The Race Relations Act

Social media services like Instagram that despite this act, content which is racially discriminatory is still commonplace amongst some algorithms due to poor regulation by Instagram. Whilst some of these explicit posts are removed, most slip through the cracks and are accessible to anyone without the need for age verification. The mass destruction of these posts normalizing and desensitizing the (racist stereotype) content which creates more of it and can affect how people view the world following it (Packard 1979 Hypodermic Syringe theory).

Regulatory Bodies & Social Media

• IPSO - Can monitor content generated by magazine publishers or news agencies

• ASA - Can monitor adverts and advertising content

• Ofcom - Can monitor all social media content and hold SM companies (e.g. WhatsApp) to account since Jan 2024

• BBFC - Can monitor and classify film content

Self-Regulation

Individuals with social media accounts often have to agree to terms and conditions (T&C's) of employment regarding social media. The main point is that employees should exercise self-regulation to avoid causing any danger to their employer's reputation/image. 

The idea of self-regulation is that individuals and their organisations make choices about what to publish as a prosumer on social media. This is how social media reflects the ethical and moral identity of the organisation. 

Twitter to X

Upon Elon Musk's purchase of the social media app 'Twitter' he rebranded the site as the 'return to free speech' which allows extremist political ideologies and accounts which before would be banned from the site such as Donald Trump. The effect this has is that users with extremist viewpoints are now free to spread hate speech which challenge the pre-existing acts (e.g. Race Relations or Equality Act). Trump, as an example, has organized and publicized/advertised 'Trump Force 47' with the goal to 'defeat Kamala Harris and the far-left liberal democrats'. 

QQ & Weibo (Chinese State Media)

QQ: This is a chat/discussion centric social media, created in China in 1999, akin to WhatsApp, Snapchat & Discord: this allows users to message or call each other individually or in a group chat; similarly to Discord, these groups can be related around a certain subject or media (e.g. popularly Genshin Impact). Users can then post images, videos, customize their avatar & UI.

Weibo: Created in 2009, Weibo functions similarly to Twitter, allowing users to post text, images and videos for people to comment on and read. Weibo is also a paid service, allowing users too subscribe to a VIP account; this likely increases their social credit.

Western Social Media

Instagram: This site allows users to: DM one another, post images & videos with short descriptions, post short stories (short videos and images which are posted temporarily), share notes/music (temporary) which other users can comment on and share

Twitter/X: This site allows users to: DM one another, post images & videos and extensive pieces of text which other users can comment on and share.

Facebook: This site allows users to: DM one another, post images & videos, extensive pieces of text which other users can comment on and share. Facebook also contains the Facebook Marketplace where users can sell and buy second-hand products, similarly to eBay.

Snapchat: This site allows users to: create a personalized avatar, create group chats with one or more people, talk to an in-built AI, post stories and share images & videos.

Cultural Control & Preservation

Cultural Preservation: The act of ensuring that a culture is not removed or taken from prominence by a government or national body. Various developed countries shave enacted this to keep elements of their culture present. Examples could include New Zealand preserving the Māori culture or Japan's preservation of their ancient culture rather than subsuming it by their modern culture.

Cultural constraints Social Media Managers must be aware of when promoting products to foreign markets

• Social Media markets need to be wary of what representations they can include when promoting their products such as LGBT+ representation which is banned in Chinese markets
• Gambling or tobacco cannot be represented in countries like China or Cambodia