http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/the-entire-breaking-bad-cast-as-8-bit-video-game-characters
Friday, October 11, 2013
8-Bit Culture and Breaking Bad
Following our discussion of 8-bit culture in class yesterday - check out the entire Breaking Bad cast as 8-bit video game characters! (courtesy of Buzzfeed)
http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/the-entire-breaking-bad-cast-as-8-bit-video-game-characters
http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/the-entire-breaking-bad-cast-as-8-bit-video-game-characters
Friday, October 4, 2013
Online Crimez
Alexander Pick
The article I read was about how a 17-‐year-‐old Scottish boy, Daniel Perry, was coerced into believing he was talking to an American girl via Skype. He shared private information with the girl through a chat box and eventually fell into a blackmail scheme. The scammers told him that he was not talking to an American girl and that they would show his family the detailed chats they had shared unless he transferred money into their bank account. Embarrassed by what he had said online, Perry killed himself. I strongly believe that this is case of disinhibition where the scammers utilized invisibility. It is clear that because they were utilizing only the chat box in Skype that the two users could not see one another. Perry believed that the person he was talking to on the other side was an American girl when it was in fact a group of scammers. This only could have happened because through text only conversation, both parties are completely invisible to one another. Had he been on the video chat of Skype, invisibility would have turned into visibility and the victim would have realized that he was not talking to an American girl but rather, a group of scammers. Going along these lines, the victim also was disinhibited in the form of dissociative anonymity by separating his actions online from his in-‐person identity and lifestyle. Clearly the things he said online embarrassed him leading me to believe that he felt like he could be someone else online. It was essentially an escape from how he thought he needed to act in the real world. His identity online allowed him the confidence to speak perhaps a little naughtily to someone he thought was an American girl. Through invisible and dissociative the scammers and victim, respectively, were actively apart of the disinhibition effect of the Internet.
Brielle Villablanca
"Huffington Post - Rebecca Ann Sedwich Bullied for Months before Her Suicide"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/13/rebecca-ann-sedwick_n_3922738.html
This case
follows the suicide of Rebecca Ann Sedwich, a 12-year-old-girl from Lakeland,
Florida. For the year leading up to her death, she had been harassed by as many
as 15 other girls who would send her threatening messages stating “You should
die” and “Why don’t you go kill yourself?”. Rebecca had previously been
suspended from school for fighting with her friend over “a boyfriend issue,”
although no further details have been provided. Rebecca changed schools to try
and stay away from the bullying and harassment, but the online messages
continued. After her death, her diaries were found full of “writings that would
break your heart,” and her computer search history showed entries like “what is
overweight for a 13-year-old girl,” “how to get the blades out of razors,” and “how
many over the counter drugs to you take to die.” Finally, she messaged an
online friend telling him she was going to jump, and threw herself from a tower
at an abandoned concrete plant.
These cyber
bullies certainly represent the toxic end of the spectrum of John Suhler’s “Internet
Disinhibition Effect;” specifically, they were affected by the factor of “Invisibility.”
Suhler says, “In many online environments, especially those that are text-driven,
people cannot see each other.” It is important to first distinguish
invisibility from anonymity: to be anonymous is to completely hide behind a
veil in which not only are you not seen, but it is impossible (or at least
fairly difficult) to determine where you are. Invisibility is slightly
different, as one’s identity isn’t hidden, just their immediate presence. In
Rebecca’s case, her bullies were upfront about their identities; however, while
there were a few arguments at school, the bulk of the bullying occurred online
with the cruel suggestions they would send her.
Suhler claims
that “invisibility gives people the courage to go places and do things that they
otherwise wouldn’t.” This statement clearly correlates with Rebecca’s case, as
her tormentors felt free to say anything they wanted, including references to
her killing herself, without the same impact on themselves as if they had done
it in person. “They don’t have to worry about how others look or sound when
they type a message;” in this case, they could be outwardly cruel without
having to worry about either physical retaliation, or seeing Rebecca’s devastation
and pain which might have caused them to limit what they said in response.
Ultimately, her 15 tormentors were able to hide behind the veil of the internet
and remain invisible; however, their actions caused very real, and devastating,
consequences.
Bryson Edgar
Inspired by the game league of legends, a young boy age 16 began actively whacking strangers with a stick in China. Due to dissociative imagination, the boy started to believe he was in the game in real life, according to authorities. People in China who were affected by this event remarked that the boy yelled "for Demacia", a term used in the games, and then continued to hit people on the head with his stick. He clearly had disinhibition between himself and the gaming world.
Camila Naesmo
Translated headline: Here is the Skype log Oygards have to explain
26th September 2013 the Norwegian mayor Rune Oygards (in Norwegian Rune Øygard) was sentenced to two years in prison for sexual intercourse with children. Although some part of Oyegard crime was done in the real world, the realationship was intialed at the Internet via Skype and through SMS. Some of the messages was quoted in the media during the court, and testyfies both manipulation and sexual harrasment. The Skype logs were also one of the most important proof; ower 80 pages of dialoge was analized during the trial.
According to Suler (2004) we behave different on Internet than in real life, that includes among others that we are more tolerant for violence, sexuality and crime. He calls this phenomenon for toxic dishibition, and claims that it can be caused by several of reasons.
In this case I would say that dissociative imagination is relevant. When we are online some can get the feeling of existing in different spaces that are separated from the responsibility in the real world. In this way the mayor could claim that his actions was not the real him, just an act of his online self. But if the action was not maid by the real you, are you still responsibility for your actions? According to Suler is the answer to this yes: The online self is a dimension of your self. In this way Oygard was still responsibility for his actions, even though he in the beginning of the relationship could clime that he would never act in the same way in real life. Another of Sulers (ibid) points is the mineralization of status and authority. By this he pointing on the absence of status items of clothes, body language and so on that reduce the impact of ones authority. In this case a mayor manipulates a 14-year-old girl into a sexual relationship. As I see it, this would be much more complicated with out Internet to cover the asymmetric relationship.
Many have questioned why the young girl fell in love with the 50 years unattractive mayor. According to Suler (ibid) can solipsistic interjection be one of the explanations. When we are online we can get the feeling that we are the main player. When we read each others message, we read it with our own voice and it can lead to a feeling that we are talking to us self. For most of us this feels safer than talking with others.
This cause got consequences in the real life. The underage girl and the mayor had sex in the real life, where the law is clear. But what if they just had continued with online sex? What if they never met physical? What if he was not a profiled mayor? Would Oyegard than still be judged to prison? Truly not, because most of us still is affected by the feeling that what´s happens on the Internet is not as seriously as in the real life.
Charlotte Bålsrud Mjelva
Temecula Student Arrested in Sextortion Case Involving Multiple Victims
Jared James Abrahams, 19, of Temecula, was arrested on September 26, 2013. He was accused for anonymously hacking young females’ accounts since March 2013. He forced them to send nude photos of themselves, or have a five-minutes Skype session with him. If the victims didn´t do what he wanted to, he threated to leak naked or manipulated pictures of them online, especially on their Facebook profile, which would humiliate and harm their reputation. He hacked their webcam, their mail, and Facebook profile. One of the victims contacted the FBI, and Abrahams got caught in June 2013. It is called a sextortion because it is a type of extortion or blackmailing a victim. The victim is usually threatened to perform a sexual art, among other things, or they will get a nude photo of themselves online.
According to John Suler’s “The Online Disinhibition Effect” (2004), disinhibition is a term that is used when people do and say things differently in cyberspace than what they would in the face-to-face world.
One of the reasons for disinhibition, which would motivate the criminal, can be dissociative anonymity. The criminal uses the possibility to be anonymous online, and act out a way he probably wouldn´t do face-to-face with the victims. To threaten both girls he know in real life and some strangers online, might be easier then to just go over and ask if he could get a naked picture of them. He uses the net to hide his real identity, and this way he can pretend to be another person, and the situation can get more unreal. But it got consequences in the real world when the FBI discovered him. This can refer to a dissociative imagination, where the criminal can have problems with separating the real world and the online life.
This is a form of toxic disinhibition, which is that the criminal uses rude language or does things he wouldn´t do in the real world.
Daniel Davis
An article featured on the Brisbane News website, published
August 21, 2013, detailed the sentencing of Luan Muharrem Tahiraj for his
online crimes. Tahiraj, now 24, calls himself “Rofles that Mastah” in the
online community. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for cybercrime
offences, specifically sex, child pornography, and cyber intimidation of
underage children. Tahiraj used his online hacking skills paired with his
online persona of “Rofles that Mastah” to hack young children’s computer and
use threats regarding the child’s friends, family, and computer safety to
coerce them into engaging in depraved sexual acts for his own pleasure. He
additionally gained more pleasure from publishing the children engaging in
these sexual acts on public threads, while voicing how he derives fun and
enjoyment from hurting these children through his crimes. Stating, “I’m rofles,
I destroy lives,” “I make a girl cry. I force her to strip and… herself”.
Fortunately he has been convicted of his crimes and will spend the next decade
in jail.
The crimes
committed by Tahiraj were most likely caused by disinhibition due to
Dissociative anonymity. Tahiraj used his username and hacking ability to remain
anonymous for a long time, even while he was directly interacting with people.
He was able to separate his real life from his online persona and identity,
leading him to feel less vulnerable about the way he was acting and the
information he may have disclosed about himself. He truly felt that no matter
what his two lives would never intersect and therefore he could commit
atrocious acts online and even celebrate them. He openly embraced his online
fame enjoyed by “Rofles that Mastah” as he wrecked lives. This probably was a
huge rush for him that he tried to perpetuate online behind his shield of
anonymity.
Diana
Beck
A
Congregation in Kent, London was the target of a cyber attack the week of
September 22, 2013. An unidentified person replicated the Facebook page and
assumed the identity of Father Peter Wilson, approaching his friends via
message asking for money. The “faux” Father Wilson would ask for support in
donating money towards the orphans in Nairobi. The imposter priest was
specifically asking for cash, which rose suspicion among his friends. Major
doubt arose when the real Peter Wilson Facebook friends recognized that
pleading for money was not the Fathers usual trend and his whereabouts were not
matching up with the “faux” Father. Eventually the scheme was discovered, the
fake Father out casted and Facebook profile taken down.
This
cyber crime of identity theft and fraud is most likely a result of John Suler’s
Online Disnhibition Effect of Dissociative Anonymity. Not only was the person
using a false identity and hiding their own but they felt a sense of protection
in using someone else’s identity. By having a false persona the real person
could have felt that they couldn’t be held accountable and were less vulnerable
about committing such a fraudulent and frowned upon act.
Dolph Rehbein
“Alleged
Founder Of Silk Road — The Site Where You Can Buy Illegal Drugs — Arrested And
Millions In Bitcoins Seized”
Ross
Ulrich, the alleged founder of Silk Road was arrested on October 2nd
based on charges of narcotic trafficking, money laundering, and putting a 1,670
Bitcoin bounty on a Silk Road extortionist’s head. The Silk Road is an online
anonymous marketplace protected by the encrypted Tor network and the nature of
the online currency known as Bitcoin. It is estimated to have had 1.2 billion
U.S Dollars trade hands through use of this website and is notorious for
providing a place for people to exchange goods and services that are considered
to be illegal by many nations. This includes the sale of narcotics and firearms
as well as the enlisting the service of prostitutes, guns-for-hire and computer
hackers.
While many feel that Ross Ulrich was
simply providing a service that governments unjustly deny their citizens he was
clearly showing signs of the online disinhibition effect. One of the major
mistakes Ross made which led to him getting caught was using his own personal
email when creating a thread on a Bitcoin message board entitled "a
venture backed Bitcoin startup company" and directing interested users to
his personal email rossulbricht@gmail.com.
Showing this level of recklessness when his delicate existence was solely based
on his high level of anonymity clearly showed that he did not understand the
possible real world consequences of his actions in cyberspace. John Suler would
attribute Ross Ulrich’s actions to his Dissociative Imagination.
Enlisting
the employment of a hit man further shows Ulrich’s signs of Dissociative
Imagination. Assuming he is not a sociopath it would be hard to believe that
Ulrich would want another man killed for trying to extradite money from Silk
Road users if he was a real tangible person and not just a username on a LCD
computer screen. Further Ulrich may have thought twice about creating the Silk
Road if he actually saw the affects of the firearms and drugs that were sold
through his anonymous market place on society. Ulrich’s inability to connect
“real life” to his actions online is what caused his downfall and likely prison
sentences.
Gina Giarmo
On Thursday, May 16, 2013, members of the “hacktavist” group dubbed “Lulzsec” were jailed for hacking into major global institutions such as CIA, Sony, the FBI, and Nintendo. They obtained and stole emails, credit card information, online passwords, and other highly sensitive information. They posted the stolen information on their website in addition to other file-sharing sites, rendering their victims vulnerable to more online attacks, and costing them millions of dollars collectively.
Four members of the activist group were young men and “stand-up” individuals in society; one was an Iraq war veteran. Dissociative anonymity protected the men during their crimes, as their theft via internet masked their identities and gave them an outlet to commit crimes they probably would not have committed had the risk for identification been greater. The men committing the crimes had never met any of their victims face-to-face, and their hacking was more of a hobby that felt like a game, an example of “dissociative imagination.” The crimes that they were committing took on a game-like quality because they were not directly experiencing or viewing the consequences of their actions and the severe harm they caused real people.
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