If the recent history of the Internet proves anything, it’s that people rarely think twice before posting on social media.
It seems nearly every week there is an example of a regrettable tweet, Facebook post, or hashtag that winds up with the user in question being harassed, slammed by the media, or fired from their job. Many of those posts have revolved around racist remarks.
In a bid to combat racist trolls, a Brazilian civil rights organization has launched a campaign called “Virtual racism, real consequences,” which sees giant billboards displaying a user’s racist comments and tweets in their own neighbourhood.
The group collects Facebook and Twitter posts and uses geolocation tags to find out the area where the user lives. They then buy billboard space in the area and post the comments for everyone to see – however, the name and picture of the user in question is blurred out.
The idea behind the campaign is simple – think twice before posting.
“We wanted to provoke a reflection. Does a comment on the internet cause less damage than a direct offense? For those who comment, it may be. But for those who suffer it, the prejudice is the same,” reads the” Virtual racism, real consequences” website.
“We omitted names and faces of the authors — we had no intention of exposing them. We just wanted to raise awareness and start a discussion, in order to make people think about the consequences before posting this kind of comments on the internet. Because, after all, the worst enemy of racism is silence.”
“I arrived home smelling like black people,” reads one of the tweets displayed on a billboard in Vila Velha, Brazil.
The campaign – founded by the Criola group, a non-profit organization that aims to defend the rights of black women in Brazil – was sparked after Brazilian journalist Maria Júlia Coutinho was targeted by racist Facebook comments.
READ MORE: Is social media turning us into insincere jerks?
The billboards have been met with mixed emotion from the community.
“I thought this was fair and just, shining a light in the face of racists,” one Facebook user commented on a local media outlet’s story about the billboards.
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Others applauded the campaign’s decision not to publicly identify those featured on the billboards.
“That kind of attitude is commendable, for not assaulting or imprison the individual, but at the same time exposing him to society,” commented another user.
Others were less amused, one user writing, “Be careful how you comment you might be the next one to have your words on a billboard.” Some pointed out that other races are discriminated against daily, yet aren’t included in the campaign.
Does publicly shaming users work?
While the identity of the users in question remains a mystery in this case, other users in the same shoes haven’t been so lucky.
Over the last few years there have been many viral, headline-making examples of how much trouble racist, sexist and offensive social media posts can cause.
Take Justine Sacco for example.
The 30-year-old communications director turned her entire life upside down after an offensive tweet about Africa went viral in December 2013.
“Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white,” she tweeted, before boarding an 11-hour flight to Cape Town. At the time she only had 170 Twitter followers.
But Sacco, and her now infamous tweet, quickly became the top trending item worldwide on Twitter. Her feed became a massive public shaming exhibition as people condemned her tweet – one that she would later defend as being sarcastic.
The hashtag #HasJustineLandedYet began trending worldwide as millions of social media users waited for Sacco to arrive at her destination, only to find out she had been fired from her PR job and become an Internet sensation for all the wrong reasons.
In October, Gerod Roth was fired from his job after posting a series of racially charged comments under a photo of himself with a co-worker’s three-year-old son on Facebook.
READ MORE: Atlanta man fired after posting photo with racist comments about co-worker’s son
These are just some of the most infamous examples; many more pop up online every month, as documented by the “Racists Getting Fired” Tumblr page, which aims to do exactly as the name suggests – highlight people’s racist behaviour online in hopes their boss sees it.
However, some have questioned whether these public shamings go too far.
In an article titled, “How one stupid tweet blew up Justine Sacco’s life,” New York Times writer Jon Ronson interviewed several people whose social media posts had seen them publicly humiliated and forced out of jobs, including Sacco.
“I was among the first people to alert social media,” he wrote regarding Sacco’s tweet. “Within minutes, it was everywhere. Amid the hundreds of congratulatory messages I received, one stuck out: ‘Were you a bully at school?'”
But, Ronson – who even researched early Colonial-era shaming (think public whippings) for the article – questioned how effective the tactic really is.
“In those early days, the collective fury felt righteous, powerful and effective. It felt as if hierarchies were being dismantled, as if justice were being democratized,” he wrote.
“As time passed, though, I watched these shame campaigns multiply, to the point that they targeted not just powerful institutions and public figures but really anyone perceived to have done something offensive. I also began to marvel at the disconnect between the severity of the crime and the gleeful savagery of the punishment.”
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