Cyberbullying victimisation during the 2019 Hong Kong social unrest

Abstract

There has been a rise in concern with local cyberbullying cases, especially during the 2019 Hong Kong Social Unrest. Among the upsurging cases of cyberbullying, there are official figures showing that those who work in specific occupations, such as law enforcers under the Security Department, are more vulnerable to be bullied online. The Hong Kong Police Force and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data reported that most of the victims experienced doxxing, which refers to the disclosing of personal information in the virtual world without consent. In some cases, their significant others, such as family members, were being doxxed. In October 2021, the legislative council passed The Personal Data (Privacy)(Amendment) Ordinance 2021 in response to the legal inadequence in combating doxxing. This thesis seeks to fill the domestic literature gap by illustrating cyberbullying victimisation process among adults using a revised criminological conceptual framework, Cyberlifestyle-Routine Activities Theory. This study adopts a quantitative research approach utilising an online self-report survey. Our results show that the Cyberlifestyle-Routine Activity Theory is able to explain Hong Kong’s cyberbullying phenomenon is due to the high online exposure and high participation rate in online deviance as well as due to low degree of capable guardianship. Meanwhile, we conclude that occupation does not predict cyberbullying victimisation, and argue that perhaps moral panic occurred during the 2019 Hong Kong Social Unrest that led to false assumption that specific occupation are more vulnerable to be cyberbullied. Lastly, this research presents cyberbullied victims’ opinions of current governmental anti-cyberbullying policies.