February 26: Cleveland - Cyber Harassment and Cyber Stalking: The New Frontier of Civil Rights in the Twenty-First Century

Description:
Danielle Keats Citron builds a compelling picture of a problem that is all too often trivialized by the media, the public, lawmakers, and law enforcement. Cyber harassment and cyber stalking are devastating and endemic. These acts involve threats of violence, privacy invasions, reputation harming lies, calls for strangers to physically harm victims, and technological attacks. As if dealing with a single attacker's hateful comments were not enough, harassing posts that make their way onto social media sites often feed on one another, turning lone instigators into cyber mobs.
Thousands upon thousands of cyber harassment incidents happen annually in the United States and throughout the world, and evidence suggests that they are becoming more prevalent. Persistent online attacks disproportionately target women; an estimated 70 percent of cyber stalking victims are women, with women of color facing more harassment than any other group. Typically, women are targeted by men who attack them using sexually explicit, threatening, and slanderous language, as well as posting sexually explicit photographs. By contrast, men are more often attacked for their ideas and actions, rather than their gender. More often than not, these attacks are written off by observers and authorities as another example of "boys will be boys" or they are viewed as less dangerous because they originate online rather than in person. Citron demonstrates that these explanations are simply not realistic. The internet is a large part of people's lives and careers and should be governed by society's rules.
Citron's lecture will discuss cyberspace as the new frontier of the civil rights movement. Citron, well-known for her articles and essays on privacy and cyber civil rights, shows that advocacy and legal work will again chart the way forward and offers a set of practical recommendations for change that policymakers, educators, lawmakers, and corporate executives can implement, while at the same time remaining respectful of the First Amendment.
Title:
Cyber Harassment and Cyber Stalking: The New Frontier of Civil Rights in the Twenty-First Century
When/Where:
February 26, 2015
4:30 P.M. - 5:30 P.M.
Moot Courtroom (A59)
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
11075 East Boulevard
Cleveland, OH 44106-7148
Speaker:
Professor Citron is the author of Hate Crimes in Cyberspace (Harvard University Press September 2014). Her book chapter “Civil Rights in the Information Age” appeared in The Offensive Internet: Speech, Privacy, and Reputation edited by Martha Nussbaum & Saul Levmore (Harvard University Press 2010). She has written articles in the California Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, Southern California Law Review, Washington University Law Review, Boston University Law Review, George Washington Law Review, Washington Law Review, and many others. Her opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, CNN, the Guardian, Slate, and the Baltimore Sun.
By:
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
Credit:
1 hour of in-person CLE credit available, pending approval
Cost:
Free and open to the public. Register at the door.
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