Time: 21 December 2021 (Tuesday) 10:30-12:00

Tencent Conference Number: 849 120 019

Summary of the report:

Social technologies in the form of virtual communities (e.g., virtual worlds, online support groups, online discussion forums, and social media) connect geographically distant individuals and facilitate their pursuit of mutual interests and goals. Individuals can obtain social and informational support by socializing and participating in public discussions on social media platforms. For example, people who experience health problems may join virtual health communities to obtain emotional support. In virtual brand communities, customers exchange product information and share shopping experiences with other customers and even brand owners. However, social media platforms are vulnerable to hostile social interactions such as online trolling, which refers to a set of intentional, antisocial, and provocative online behaviors.  On Reddit, for example, many trolling campaigns have been coordinated across subreddits of destructive and controversial communities. The insulting and manipulative posts used in collective trolling campaigns provoke a flood of angry responses, resulting in a polarized society. The objective of this study is to use the sociotechnical perspective to understand we-intention to participate in collective trolling on social media.  We expect the findings to advance the theory of online collective deviant behaviors facilitated by social technologies. We also hope that our findings will offer practical guidance for social media platform owners on formulating timely measures to combat collective trolling.

Profile of the rapporteur.

Christy M.K. Cheung is a Professor in the Department of Finance and Decision Sciences of Hong Kong Baptist University. She is the awardee of the Research Grant Council (Hong Kong) Senior Research Fellow scheme with the funding to advance research into the role of technology in online collective deviant behavior. She earned a Ph.D. in Information Systems from the College of Business at City University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include Technology Use and Well-Being, Social Media, Societal Impact of Technology Use. She has published more than 200 refereed articles in international journals and conference proceedings, including MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems and Journal of the Association for Information Systems. She serves as the Editor-in-Chief at Internet Research and the President of AIS-Hong Kong Chapter.

(Organised by: Department of Management Engineering, Centre for Research and Academic Communication)