So You've Been Publicly Shamed

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of sexual assault, misogyny, violent threats, child abuse, racial stereotypes, Holocaust imagery, and suicidal ideation. Additionally, the source material occasionally references offensive terminology for women, sex workers, and LGBTQ+ individuals, which is replicated in this guide only in direct quotations of the source material.

In 2012, Ronson discovers a Twitter “spambot” designed by an academic at Warwick University, Luke Robert Mason, is impersonating him. Ronson contacts Mason and asks him to take down the account, but Mason refuses, stating that the “infomorph” (as he calls it) is not impersonating Ronson but rather “repurposing social media data into an infomorphic aesthetic” (2).

Distressed by Mason’s response, Ronson arranges an interview with the team of academics who created the spambot—Mason, David Bausola, and Dan O’Hara. During the interview, Ronson and the team argue. The researchers maintain that the spambot is just as artificial as Ronson’s own internet presence on Twitter. Ronson responds that it is an inaccurate representation of his identity, and he wants it taken down. For example, the spambot tweets a lot about penises and restaurants, which are not topics Ronson often discusses.