User:Ava hedges/Dogpiling (Internet)

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Dog-piling, or a dog-pile is a form of online harassment, or online abuse. Examples of online abuse include: flaming, doxing (online release of personal information without consent), impersonation, and public shaming. The severity of these forms of abuse can vary but in the most extreme cases it is severe. Dog-piling as a form of abuse includes the characteristics of online abuses performed by the act of many users targeting one person. Also referred to as "Cyber-Mob Attacks." Both are characterized by a large number of accounts spamming one users comment threads. Due the inclusion of online harassment in the definition, dog-piling is negative attention derived from multiple different accounts. Dog-pilers often focus on harassing, exposing, or punishing a target for an opinion that the group does not agree with, or just simply for the sake of being a bully and targeting a victim. Dog-piling usually takes place on controversial posts. Dog-pilers use criticism and/or insults,   to target a single person. In some definitions, it also includes sending private messages.

History
The expression dog-piling or dog-pile in the context of the internet was first taken from the English term pig-pile in the late 1800's. The first use of dog-pile was in 1921. Dog-pile was used to describe the way football players "piled" on top of each other during games. The term dog-pile was influenced by the manner in which dogs piled on top of each other during play or feeding. In 1940, dog-pile was used in the same fashion to describe the game children played by jumping on top of each other to get to the top of the pile. By then, the term had evolved to become a metaphor for a group of people teaming up to pick on one person.

Today, the use of dog-pile is most popular in terms of the internet in the form of online harassment. For example, the term dog-piling is used in reference to the Gamergate controversy.

Around the time of August and September 2014, the hashtag #GamerGate took off. The GamerGate controversy was a harassment campaign created and started in 2014 by a previous boyfriend of Zoe Quinn. Quinn is a video game developer, programmer and writer. Eron Gjoni, Quinn's ex-boyfriend created a, "hate blog," called The Zoe Post. In this blog, Gjoni accused Quinn of sleeping with a journalist for a positive review in regards to her video game Depression Quest. This was the catalyst for the #GamerGate movement to begin.

Zoe Quinn was the main target of harassment, in addition to Anita Sarkesian. Sarkesian is a feminist media critic. Anyone who was defending the two were also on the receiving end of online harassment, or dog-piling.

GamerGate was rooted in misogynistic, sexist, racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, and transphobic hatred. Conservative, White, male gamers are most commonly know to be the perpetrators. The harassment included attacks on women and feminist gamers. Additionally, death-threats and the public release of personal information called doxing occurred.

Basic Information
Dog-piling is a form of cyberbullying, or "trolling." Although dog-piling is synonymous with cyberbullying, dog-piling can be of positive nature in some instances. The nature of the term is highly connotative with the intentions behind the act of dog-piling. In positive instances, messages can be uplifting, inspiring and encouraging. However, this is not usually the case due to the fact that dog-piling is included as a form of online harassment. Spam comments take the form of online shaming, trolling, and harassment. Dog-piling takes the form of a group behavior, caused by the bandwagon effect.

Effects
Dog-piling, because it is connotative with cyberbullying, can have effects on mental health.