Digital Ethics: Quick Guide

Online communities (ex. Discord servers, group chats, diaspora boards, fandom circles, activist channels, religious Zoom spaces, LGBTQ+ mutual-aid forums, etc.) are not just content sources. 

They are:

• social ecosystems
• vulnerable networks
• spaces of care
• spaces of harm
• spaces of power
• spaces of refuge

Engage with them as communities, not archives. The Internet is a neighborhood; act like you live there. 

A few key rules:

• Ask permission & mean it.
• Don’t lurk. Don’t spy. Don’t harvest. Show up. 
• If you wouldn’t do it in someone’s living room, don’t do it in their group chat. 

Consent isn’t optional; consent is the assignment. Consent is mandatory, even and especially for publicly visible posts. If, at any time, anyone says no, the conversation is over. 

A post is not free. A tweet is not a quote. A comment is not your poem. Ask first. Always.No consent = no usage. No exceptions.

Students must:

• respect anonymity
• ask permission before quoting
• provide context for how language will be used
• identify themselves and the assignment clearly
• immediately stop collecting if anyone requests it

Some simple message templates:

• “Hi. I’m a student working on a Poetry for the People project where we gather language from our own communities. May I quote this post or conversation? You can choose how you want to be credited.”
• “Do you want your name, initials, or silence?”
• “May I write this down?”
• “May I quote you?”

Digital extraction = harm.  This course rejects all forms of surveillance. We do not take. We listen. We witness. We honor. Extraction is violence. We are not a miners. We are makers. 

Students may not use:

• bots
• scraping tools
• browser extensions
• AI-powered collectors
• data-harvesting software
• screenshotting without permission
• “lurking for material” without engagement

Let’s keep it simple: no AI voices; no AI quotes; no AI dialects; no AI testimony; no AI “found text.” Students may use AI only to clean your own sentences after the poem is yours. Even then ask: “But must I?” No AI tool may be used before a draft exists in your own voice.

Violations count as:

• academic dishonesty;
• ethical breach; and
• misrepresentation of community.

AI Cannot:

• generate community voices
• imitate dialect or vernacular
• fabricate quotes
• simulate testimony
• paraphrase or summarize community members’ posts
• produce the poem
• generate “found text”
• rewrite community members’ words

AI May Only (but needn’t):

• help you edit or clarify your own writing
• help you organize your notes that you wrote yourself
• assist you in polishing your reflection or analysis

Digital privacy is fragile and safety is not a metaphor. Safety is material. Safety is part of the grade. So: blur names; hide faces; cut details that could hurt someone. If safety is unclear, err on the side of anonymity or omission.

Students must:

• remove all identifying details unless consent is explicit
• blur usernames or profile photos unless permission is given
• secure screenshots in password-protected folders
• avoid quoting minors except in family or youth-group contexts with guardian approval
• avoid reposting or resharing community language on public platforms without permission
• avoid exposing vulnerable communities to harassment or doxxing

Your assignment must never put someone at risk of:

• political retaliation
• workplace surveillance
• domestic danger
• immigration exposure
• online harassment

Don’t chase trauma and never perform care. We are not entitled to anyone’s pain. If someone gives us something tender, we must treat it like breath in our hands. And if they don’t? Good. We work with people to sharpen their language, not their wounds.

When gathering language digitally, always:

• disclose your purpose;
• keep a list of permissions;
• avoid direct quotes, especially if tone might be misread outside the original context;
• consider whether your transcription flattens their nuance; and
• Ask about, and take into account, any cultural or linguistic boundaries around public speech

Ask yourself:

• Am I extracting or participating?
• Am I listening or collecting?
• Am I harvesting or witnessing?
• Am I interpreting or imposing?

Even digital space has a body we must respect. Even online, our presence matters and it’s our work to ensure that our presence does not distort the space. Don’t flatten people to content.

Practice:

• humility
• patience
• generosity
• clarity
• boundaries
• non-performance
• non-judgment

Avoid:

• correcting community members
• steering conversations
• centering yourself
• intellectualizing someone else’s experience
• “studying” people

Digital harm spreads fast. Before anything else, ask yourself these four questions. If you don’t like the answers, start again.

1. What responsibility do I carry now?
2. Who could be harmed?
3. Who disappears?
4. Who is centered?

Our central ethical question is always: “Who could be harmed by this choice?” If the answer is “anyone,” reconsider the method.

Students must not:

• reshare sensitive content
• take screenshots without permission
• use language from crisis threads or trauma disclosures
• enter private groups without explicit invitation
• expose protected or marginalized communities to outsider

Return is a practice of respect. Bring the poem home as audio, as message, as broadside, as whatever they can access. The return is the ritual, the respect, and the work itself.

If you return your poem digitally:

• Deliver it directly to the community
• avoid public tagging unless you have explicit consent
• provide alt-text for images
• provide captions for audio or video
• provide translations when relevant
• be prepared to receive feedback, critique, or refusal