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This paper aims to analyze some of the epistemically pernicious effects of the use of the internet and social media. In light of this analysis, it introduces the concept of epistemic pornography and argues that epistemic agents both can and should avoid consuming and sharing epistemic pornography.

The paper draws on research on epistemic virtue, cognitive biases, social media use and its epistemic consequences, fake news, paternalistic nudging, pornography, moral philosophy, moral elevation and moral exemplar theory to analyze the epistemically pernicious effects of the internet and social media.

There is a growing consensus that the internet and social media activate and enable human cognitive biases leading to what are here called “failures of epistemic virtue.” Common formulations of this problem involve the concept of “fake news,” and strategies for responding to the problem often have much in common with paternalistic “nudging.” While fake news is a problem and the nudging approach holds out promise, the paper concludes that both place insufficient emphasis on the agency and responsibility of users on the internet and social media, and that nudging represents a necessary but not sufficient response.

The essay offers the concept of epistemic pornography as a concept distinct from but related to “fake news” – distinct precisely because it places greater emphasis on personal agency and responsibility, and following recent literature on moral elevation and moral exemplars, as a heuristic that agents might use to economize their efforts at resisting irrational cognitive biases and attempting to live up to their epistemic duties.

Four male undergraduates at Cornell University post on the internet the “Top 75 reasons why women (bitches) should not have freedom of speech.” Reason #20: “This is my dick. I'm gonna fuck you. No more stupid questions.”

This study aims to establish a comprehensive understanding of the intricacies of how individuals engage with deepfakes, focusing on limiting adverse effects and capitalizing on their benefits.

This study conducted a meta-synthesis of qualitative studies on deepfakes, incorporating study-specific analysis followed by a cross-study synthesis.

Based on the meta-synthesis, the study developed an integrated conceptual framework based on the perspectives from the social shaping of technology theory embedding deepfake-related assertions, motivations, the subtleties of digital platforms, and deepfake-related repercussions.

The study offers crucial insights into the evolving nature of deepfakes as a socio-technical phenomenon and the significance of platform dynamics in deepfake production. It enables researchers to comprehend the cascading effects of deepfakes and positions them to evaluate deepfake-related risks and associated mitigation mechanisms.

The framework that emerges from the study illustrates the influence of platforms on the evolution of deepfakes and assists platform stakeholders in introducing effective platform governance structures to combat the relentless proliferation of deepfakes and their consequences, as well as providing guidance for governments and policymakers to collaborate with platform leaders to set guardrails for deepfake engagement.

Deepfakes have been extensively contested for both their beneficial and negative applications and have been accused of heralding an imminent epistemic threat that has been downplayed by some quarters. This diversity of viewpoints necessitates a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon. In responding to this call, this is one of the first to establish a comprehensive, theoretically informed perspective on how individuals produce, process, and engage with deepfakes through a meta-synthesis of qualitative literature on deepfakes.

Purpose: The study makes use of situational crime prevention framework for analyzing online community reactions to the banning of deepfake pornographic content from Reddit.

Methodology/approach: Qualitative text analysis of user comments posted to Reddit’s rule-change announcement (N = 582) was carried out. Analysis relied on the original 25 techniques of situational crime prevention that were adapted into a table of activities and mechanisms meant specifically for use with online platforms.

Findings: Analysis indicates that Reddit users voiced several shortcomings that are currently present in Reddit’s platform management approach. In particular, users emphasized issues related to the lack of a consistent and transparent approach to community rule enforcement, as users believed the rule changes to be sudden and poorly reasoned. The general reactionary nature of Reddit’s approach to moderating community-harming actions also was a point of emphasis, alongside the platform’s continued rigid stance on freedom of expression, even with regard to illegal and demeaning content. Regarding Reddit and the new rules on involuntary pornography and the sexualization of minors, enforcement of sitewide policy appears contingent on external influences, such as attention from mainstream media or financial matters, rather than stemming from an inherent stance on decreasing community-harming activities.

Research limitations: The study only pertains to a specific rule change by Reddit and subsequent reactions from the platform’s community. Future research is needed to test the applicability of the adapted table of 25 techniques of situational crime prevention in the context of other online platforms.

Originality/value: First, the study applies the situational crime prevention approach in the context of moderating online platforms. Second, results from the study shed light on current practices in online content moderation from the perspective of criminological theory, as well as inform specific actions that can be taken to decrease the presence of community-harming phenomena and improve the enforcement of sitewide policy rules in general. Finally, by adapting the original 25 techniques of situational crime prevention to online content moderation, the study suggests a tentative roadmap for similar research in the future.

The purpose of this study is to explore a consumption values model for Islamic mobile banking acceptance and to identify any differences in perceived consumption values between Muslims and non-Muslims towards the use of Islamic mobile banking services.

Using an online survey method, a sample of 183 was collected and the partial least squares (PLS) method was used to evaluate the model and validate hypothesis, as it is ideal for assessing both the psychometric properties of all scales and, subsequently, to test the structural relationships proposed in the model.

Empirical results via the PLS method demonstrates that the result satisfactorily explains the adoption of Islamic mobile banking and further demonstrates the use of the consumption values model as an alternate approach for technology adoption. The consumption values model approach appears to have a stronger fit for Muslims than non-Muslims with 66.6 per cent of the variance explained and a goodness-of-fit index of 0.724. The conditional factors are important in the non-Muslims compared to Muslims. Muslims seem to value emotional factors more than non-Muslims.

The current research findings represent mainly university students with some exposure to Islamic mobile banking experience and familiarity with mobile technology. Indeed, the samples were taken from Malaysia, an Islamic country that has a diverse ethnic and cultural background. Hence, the result may not apply to other Islamic countries, e.g. Arabic countries due to the cultural background differences. Future researchers could overcome the limits of generalisability by increasing sample coverage.

This research finding is useful as the comparison is made between Muslim and non-Muslim consumers which help practitioners and researchers to better understand the different adoption characteristics and advance insights on how to promote such a technological service for everyday banking needs especially to different segments of the community. In developing Islamic mobile banking interactions, designers should look beyond the system’s ease of use and take advantage of the different consumption values to include personalisation in the service design through automatically recognising Muslim customers and non-Muslim customers during system use.

The study contributed to the theory of consumption values model in technology adoption and demonstrated the model is capable of explaining the functional, emotional, epistemic, conditional and social values on consumers in their adoption intention. This research provides empirical findings not reported in previous studies due to the overly represented technology acceptance model approach.

This chapter will seek to add insight on the lived experiences of women subjected to non-fatal, non-consensual violence in sex (NCVS) by men.

The chapter will draw on primary research conducted by the author in the Spring and Summer of 2020, comprising in-depth interviews with eight women and a survey of 84 women, all of whom had experienced NCVS, often from multiple perpetrators. It will summarize the acts to which women were subjected (often life-threatening in nature), the long-term impacts on women, and the ways in which men minimized and re-packaged their violence. It will make the case that NCVS – often dismissed as ‘rough sex gone wrong’ – is a particularly insidious form of violence against women and girls.

The chapter will highlight how women’s sense-making processes around NCVS are often hampered by legal definitions of sexual violence, which left women wondering ‘what category to put it in’. Using Fricker’s (2007) concept on ‘epistemic injustice’, it will emphasize the need for a ‘shared tools of social interpretation’ (p. 6) around NCVS, alongside any legal changes, and the importance of campaigns like We Can’t Consent To This in giving language to women’s often unspoken experiences.

Knowledge, as represented in the history of ideas and in studies of knowledge paradigms and bibliographical structures, appears coherent and rationalistic. By examining the work of the French historian and philosopher Michel Foucault, this view is discussed. Special attention is given, in any cultural or scientific interpretation of an age, to the need to get behind the dominant or hegemonistic body of institutionalized and documented knowledge. We need to investigate the assumptions and underlying influences on the ways in which discourse embody and shape meanings. What preconceptually underpins, we might ask, what people know as knowledge. Important links between language, truth and power are examined, and these are major concerns for Foucault. It is argued that Foucault's ‘archaeological’ and ‘genealogical’ insights into the nature of warranted knowledge are crucial for an understanding of the communication process and the knowledge‐organizing activities of information specialists.