P032. eDeTox - Deconstructing Antisocial Behaviour and Toxic Communication Online

• In Event: Poster Session & Ice Cream Social

Abstract

The poster outlines eDeTox - Deconstructing Antisocial Behaviour and Toxic Communication Online, a new large-scale project (2025-2028) funded by the Italian Science Fund (FIS2 Consolidator). eDeTox addresses several types of antisocial behaviour and toxic communication online (ABTCO), ranging from information pollution to various types of antagonistic online behaviours, drawing the socio-criminological imagination to the fundamental question: how to best understand, prevent and mitigate serious forms of digital social harms? As part of the project, the hidden harms and the criminogenic features of ABTCO will be identified, and the systemic opportunities enabling or facilitating it will be mapped out. The research team will also study what drives people into and out of ABTCO, why certain people do not engage with, or resist, ABTCO, and targets' reactions. The project is ultimately aimed to inform leading-edge, practical approaches, bringing together social, situational and technological perspectives to prevent and mitigate ABTCO and its harms. eDeTox relies on sociotechnical methodologies which bring together qualitative, quantitative and computational data gathering techniques and analytical strategies, and embeds a comparative perspective, considering in its analyses Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, and England.

Author

• Anita Lavorgna, University of Bologna