Abstract
This is a book about digital vigilantism defined as ‘practices where citizens (or digital media users more generally) are offended by other citizen actions, and retaliate through practices and repertoires that include mobile devices and social platforms … As a global development, digital media audiences denounce and bear witness to criminal and moral offences’ (p. 1). Vigilant audiences, according to the editors of this collection, might be justice-seeking, entertainment-seeking or both, namely they ‘are characterised by a confluence of entertainment and criminal justice’ (p. 5). Trottier, Gabdulhakov and Huang make it clear from the onset that there are considerable cross-national differences in these practices of denunciation, shaming and doxing. They also consider the role of the press and public figures ‘in supporting or contesting these activities’ (blurb). The book is split into Introduction and eleven substantial chapters. The substantial chapters explore a range of case studies from around the world such as vigilantism in online pop culture fandoms; vigilantism towards Chinese underclass youths on social media platforms; moral policing in Russia; anti-immigration activism on YouTube; digital vigilantism towards comedy; digital vigilantism in Morocco; online shaming in Slovenia; doxing against hate speech; police responses to digital vigilantism; ‘the rhetoric of mediated mugshots’, and digital vigilantism and virtuous denunciation after Charlottesville. All in all, this collection contains an interesting range of case studies and is well worth a read.