Applying a feminist ethics of care in conducting internet-based archival gender research: the case of studying Gamergate Reactions

Key ethical issues continue to emerge from the task of archiving data scraped from online sources such as social media websites, blogs, and forums, particularly pertaining to online harassment and hostile groups. An understanding of ethics and data stewardship that evolves alongside the shifting landscape of digital societies is indeed essential. We studied a primary research archive of data scraped during a case study of Gamergate, which involved numerous instances of hate speech in various online communities. This qualitative research raises ethical issues around treating social media authors as research subjects who have provided informed consent. Once researchers consider content creators on these websites as human research subjects, what would best efforts adhering to the directive to do no harm look like? We consider how to care for stakeholders using the challenges in their relational contexts, including gender. We also consider how the Ethics of Care may be extended to the research community, and especially student researchers in their exposure to toxic material.