Cyber-vigilantes: Saviors or saboteurs?

Accessibility to technology increasingly enables the ordinary citizen to engage in cyber-vigilante activities online. While cyber-vigilantism activities are often framed as forms of justice and accountability, they also introduce significant risks including misinformation, misidentification, harassment and irreversible reputational harm. Adopting a Socio-Technical lens to examine cyber-vigilantism as an emerging phenomenon shaped by the interaction between social and technology systems, this teaching case examines the phenomenon of cyber-vigilantism by exploring the diverse perspectives, operational methods and impacts on intended targets. The teaching case aims to promote critical engagement by presenting different vignette examples on cyber-vigilantism that enable and encourage students to evaluate differing interpretations to how acts of cyber-vigilantism are represented, justified and perceived within society. The paper briefly introduces the concept of the ‘savior-saboteur’ paradox, which argues that cyber-vigilantes are neither beneficial nor harmful to society. Instead, they are socially constructed as saviors or saboteurs depending on how socio-technical outcomes are interpreted in specific contexts. By presenting examples without prescriptive judgment, the paper encourages students to independently consider the implications of actions that occur outside formal legal frameworks. Students are invited to assess the contrasting perspectives of those who initiate cyber-vigilante actions and those who are affected by them; and to consider how each side’s actions and responses interact with societal norms, expectations and values. This approach emphasizes careful observation and analysis by encouraging students to explore how interactions between cyber-vigilantes and their targets may challenge societal norms.