Rape In Cyberspace
"A Rape in Cyberspace, or How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database into a Society" is an article written by journalist Julian Dibbell[1]. The article was first published in The Village Voice in 1993 and later incorporated into Dibbell's book titled My Tiny Life which recounts his experiences and observations from his time on LambdaMOO.
The article describes one of the first widely known instances of virtual rape that occurred online. The incident occurred on the platform LambdaMOO, in his article Dibbell details the aftermath and the subsequent consequences of the attack on the virtual community.
Contents
LambdaMOO
The unprovoked attack described in “A Rape in Cyberspace” took place in the virtual reality of LambdaMOO, a text-based online community which is an extension of MUD, a multi-user dimensions computer game[2]. Players interacted with each other, objects and locations by using avatars. Players are given the freedom to customize the text description of their avatars in any way they would like to including their preferred gender and outward appearance [1].
Summary
The Attack
On a night in March 1993, the avatar Mr. Bungle entered Living Room #17, a very popular meeting site on LambdaMOO, and forced two other players, Legba and Starsinger, to perform explicit and sexual acts. Mr. Bungle was able to force these actions upon other players through the use of a voodoo doll, a subprogram that enables the user to override controls and so statements written by one user appear to be attributed to another user[3]. As a result, an avatar does and says things that the avatar’s user did not intend or want their avatar to do. Mr. Bungle with the help of his voodoo doll subprogram was able to manipulate and control the actions of the other players even when he was in an entirely different room. The attack lasted until someone summoned a wizard named Zippy, a player with administrator level access, who was able to cage Mr. Bungle. The caging caused Mr. Bungle to lose access to the LambdaMOO community without the deletion of his avatar or account, thereby end his attack on the community that night[3].
Community Response
The actions committed by Mr. Bungle violate the community norms that had been established within LambdaMOO. Mr. Bungle’s conduct elicited outrage from the community and its members. The day following the attack Legba, one of the victims posted a statement on the in-MOO mailing list, social-issue, a form in which member could talk about and debate issues important to the entire community. [3] In her statement Legba, although still confused about how she should feel after the attack, did call for some kind of repercussion. The user behind Legba later confused to Dibbell that she wrote her statement with tears streaming down her face due to the trauma she experienced from her virtual rape. Later Legba called for Mr. Bungle to be toaded, or to have his account and avatar removed from LambdaMOO. Despite the intentional support Legba received, the community quickly became divided on how to handle the situation. On the third day after the incident, LambdaMOO users gathered to disuse the fate of Mr. Bungle. In the middle of the meeting, Mr. Bungle joined the conversation saying that his actions were a consequence of the virtual reality and that in they had no bearing on his real life. Despite a lengthy conversation, the users did not come to a resolution.
Consequences
After the meeting, a wizard named JoeFeedback weighed the arguments and decided to take action. He quickly and silently removed Mr. Bungle from the LambdaMOO database and with this action the character of Mr. Bungle ceased to exist. Despite the character being kicked off the avatar’s users did not experience the same punishment. A few days later, the user returned to the platform as a new character named Dr. Jest but he quickly left the site and never returned. The actions of Mr. Bungle had an everlasting effect on LambdaMOO, by forcing a diverse group of users to come together to form a community with its own rules and regulations. As a result, LambdaMOO's main creator Pavel Curtis set up a system of petitions and ballots where users can put any topic up to a popular vote and in which community wizards are required to implement the outcome [4]. The system helped to create a government for the community and ways to protect against acts of violence on the site[4].
Ethical Implications
External Links
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Dibbell, Julian. "A Rape in Cyberspace." The Village Voice. 21 December 1993
- ↑ Danaher, John. “The Law and Ethics of Virtual Sexual Assault.” Research Handbook on the Law of Virtual and Augmented Reality, 21 Dec. 2018, pp. 363–388.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 http://refractory.unimelb.edu.au/2008/05/22/rape-and-the-memex-laurence-johnson/
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Brennan, Linda L., and Victoria Johnson. Social, Ethical and Policy Implications of Information Technology. Information Science Pub., 2004.
