Entre a violência e a justiça: a justificativa moral do linchamento virtual a partir da controvérsia da relação moral entre autor e obra

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to investigate and understand how individuals who participate in virtual lynchings morally justify their practices, specifically considering cases that involve the problem of the relationship between author and work. Virtual lynching can be understood as a type of conflict that occurs on social media and begins when a target, whether an individual or not, performs an action that is considered unacceptable or immoral by the agents of the lynching, who in turn take to social media to publish criticisms, insults, threats or complaints. This is a phenomenon that occurs from aggressive and violent practices, with the intention of punishing individuals considered “criminals”, but which is also permeated by a desire for justice based on the intention of alerting the public about actions or attitudes that should no longer be accepted or of demanding some type of reparation in an alternative way, that is, without resorting to formal justice. When these conflicts occur, individuals usually produce moral justifications for their criticisms and mobilize moral and justice principles. Understanding these moral justifications and analyzing which moral principles are being mobilized during cases of virtual lynching are the objectives of this study based on Boltanski and Thévenot's theory of justification and sociological studies regarding the relationship between author and work in Sapiro.