Can Stack Exchange's down-voting system be considered online bullying?

Question

From what I understand, bullying happens when someone is harmed through an online system that puts them in contact with other users, sometimes masking their identities.

From Wikipedia:

Cyberbullying is defined in legal glossaries as

• actions that use information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm another or others.

• use of communication technologies for the intention of harming another person

• use of Internet service and mobile technologies such as web pages and discussion groups as well as instant messaging or SMS text messaging with the intention of harming another person.

From "Cyber Bullying Law & Legal Definition":

Examples of what constitutes cyberbullying include communications that seek to intimidate, control, manipulate, put down, falsely discredit, or humiliate the recipient. The actions are deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior intended to harm another.

As such, could the "downvote" button, which is a major "feature" of the SE website, be considered a bullying tool?

It allows people to collectively, but in a hidden manner, criticise the work and input of a single user (instead of discussing with them to tell them they disagree).

This can in turn create a situations in which someone can feel like a group of people is against them, or voted down their content in order to harm them, or do not want to communicate their reasons to them (feeling of domination and exclusion can be reinforced if the person downvoted, as is often the case for a new user without "privileges").

The intent behind each downvote is not clear, and some users could downvote in order to harm if they wanted, this is a possibility and privilege given to them.

Or a user who believes they have been harmed by a down vote could claim the downvotes were made out of hatred since downvotes can be done without justification.

To summarise, could a bullying case involving a new user who got his question downvoted stand in court?

NOTE: I couldn't find "cyber-bullying" and "online-crime" or any related tags in there but feel free to add them if needed.

Answer 1

No.

I can't give a more detailed answer without reference to a specific statute. But just about every state anti-bullying statute in the U.S. restricts the definition to...well, bullying. There is a good summary of state bullying and cyberbullying statutes here.

The laws are varied, but they invariable contain words like "harassment", "abuse", "threatening," "fear," and "hostile environment."

Would it be possible to "cyberbully" someone on Stack Exchange under some of these statutes? Sure. You could do it in comments; in answers; even in questions. "Question: Is Bill in my algebra class a dork, or a tool?" Comment: "This is a terrible question, and I'm going to burn your house down. Downvoting." You could probably fit something like that under some of the broader statutes--although they still for the most part haven't been tested for First Amendment issues.

But I don't know of any statute broad enough to include downvoting a question or answer, on a site people post on knowing that the whole purpose of posting is to allow their posts to be upvoted and downvoted.

If there was such a statute--and again, I don't know of any--it would almost certainly be unconstitutional. There is no law against hurting people's feelings, at least in the United States, and a law that allows people to seek legal redress for someone saying "I disagree with you" is pretty much the poster child for a First Amendment violation.

Answer 2

Can Stack Exchange's down-voting system be considered online bullying?

Like chapka said, no it can't. But I'd say it's sometimes associated with online bullying.

From what I understand, bullying happens when someone is harmed through an online system that puts them in contact with other users, sometimes masking their identities. From Wikipedia: Cyberbullying is defined in legal glossaries as

• actions that use information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm another or others...

I'd say that happens on stack exchange, but it happens everywhere. People are people. For myself I don't like the anonymity that some people hide behind, and I don't like the anonymous voting. I think stack exchange would be a better place if everybody used their real names and their voting history was transparent.

Examples of what constitutes cyberbullying include communications that seek to intimidate, control, manipulate, put down, falsely discredit, or humiliate the recipient. The actions are deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior intended to harm another.

Yes, and that would primarily occur in a chatroom or in comments. Whilst dishonest downvote collusion could be described as falsely discrediting somebody, it isn't in the same league as ad-hominem abuse and malicious lies.

As such, could the "downvote" button, which is a major "feature" of the SE website, be considered a bullying tool?

Maybe, but IMHO it would be minor one.

It allows people to collectively, but in a hidden manner, criticise the work and input of a single user (instead of discussing with them to tell them they disagree).

I'd use the word discredit rather than criticise. Yes it can be used maliciously, and I think it's a source of problems for stack exchange.

This can in turn create a situations in which someone can feel like a group of people is against them, or voted down their content in order to harm them, or do not want to communicate their reasons to them (feeling of domination and exclusion can be reinforced if the person downvoted, as is often the case for a new user without "privileges").

Yes, and then the new user departs. Or the expert user departs, and stack exchange is the poorer for it.

To summarise, could a bullying case involving a new user who got his question downvoted stand in court?

No. It can be counterproductive, and unpleasant, but there's no actual words being used, and no threats or intimidation. You can't describe it as bullying.