On social media, ‘nothing disappears’
Why online shaming may have consequences for the #chairgirl
Nineteen-year-old Marcella Zoia, who turned herself in to police Wednesday morning after she was allegedly caught on video throwing a chair off a downtown Toronto balcony toward the Gardiner Expressway, is out on bail, facing three criminal charges of mischief.
But she’s already been convicted in the eyes of the thousands who viewed the viral video on social media and dubbed her “chair girl.”
Her case shows how videos shared on social media can expose people to a new kind of vicious public shaming that has very real legal consequences, experts say, pointing to recent Toronto examples of 2017’s “crane girl” and the infamous Blue Jays beer-can tosser.
Platforms like Instagram, Twitter and YouTube have given such shaming new reach and power, says Rhonda McEwen, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, Mississauga, who studies the topic.
Throughout human history, she said, shaming was local — for example, if someone was put in stocks in the town square. Technology is bringing that back on a wider scale, she said.
Once it goes viral, you have the ability to create the village once more,” she said. Posts can reach employers and potential employers across a wide area, and users often don’t understand the possible legal implications.
“Because police and lawyers are looking at these things, and it becomes a matter of public record.”
In addition to her criminal charges — mischief endangering life, mischief involving damage to property and common nuisance — the video has been blasted on social media as “stupid,” “reckless” and “idiot” behaviour, among other more explicit insults.
It has even spawned its own #chairgirl hashtag. Both the people in the videos and the ones taping them should think twice before posting, McEwen said. “What happens when the mob gets it can get quite ugly, and then it’s too late.”
Zoia’s is not Toronto’s first case of social media-fuelled mob mentality.
In April 2017, a 23-year-old woman was charged with six counts of mischief after she stranded herself on a crane and forced emergency crews to rescue her. “Crane Girl,” as she was called on social media, eventually received an absolute discharge — and no criminal record — after pleading guilty to two counts of mischief. At the time, she explained she was struggling with mental health issues and had been abusing alcohol. In October 2016, a man caught throwing a beer can on- to Rogers Centre field during a Blue Jays playoff game prompted the online equivalent of a citywide manhunt. He turned himself in two days after the game and later pleaded guilty to one count of mischief.
Ramona Pringle, an associate professor at Ryerson University’s Faculty of Communication and Design, said people should expect a level of surveillance everywhere in public spaces, now that everyone has a smartphone. “We are surrounded by all of these little brothers and little sisters,” she said.
There’s “no excuse for bad behaviour,” but “we don’t cease to be human and make human mistakes just because we live in this digital world,” Pringle said.
With a “trial by social media,” instead of a jury of 12 of your peers who, hopefully, take things like mental health issues and other facts into account, the public rushes to judgment without all of the information, she said.
Zoia will return to court at Old City Hall on March 22.