Online shaming
![In 2015, an American dentist and recreational big-game hunter received a flood of negative messages and online reviews after killing Cecil the lion.](/Images/godic/202501/09/Walter_Palmer's_clinic1432.jpg")
![Jon Ronson has compared modern online shaming to medieval pillories.](/Images/godic/202501/09/Pillory_91053771432.jpg")
![Public humiliation of Ashley Madison users has been argued to be a form of](/Images/godic/202501/09/Jules_Arsène_Garnier_-_Le_supplice_des_adultères1432.jpg")
![A woman taking up empty seats on the London Underground](/Images/godic/202501/09/Shebagging_in_London1433.jpg")
Online shaming is a form of Internet vigilantism in which targets are publicly humiliated using technology like social and new media. Proponents of shaming see it as a form of online participation that allows hacktivists and cyber-dissidents to right injustices. Critics see it as a tool that encourages online mobs to destroy the reputation and careers of people or organizations who made perceived slights.