Catfishing (Global)

Catfishing 🌍
Location: Global
Definition: Faking one’s online profile on a social networking site, typically using another person’s name and/or images, to form an intimate relationship
Keywords: Global – Cyberinformality – Concealment – Fraud – Internet – Information – Sociability – Identity – Youth
Author: Jade Jacobs
Affiliation: Alumna, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, UK

By Jade Jacobs, Alumna, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, UK

Catfishing is an online practice whereby one creates a fake profile on a social networking site by using another person’s name and/or pictures, in order to form an intimate online relationship with a stranger.

Practices of catfishing have been investigated and popularised in a series of programmes called Catfish: The MTV Show (2012). In one episode, a boy is desperate to meet a girl who he has fallen in love with on Facebook (Jarrod and Abby in Season 1, Episode 5). However, when they meet the girl turns out to be a catfish: her real name is Melissa and she had used another woman’s photos (Shana’s) for her online profile. Melissa states the reason she used a fake identity was to help her overcome depression and insecurities about her appearance. She maintains that ‘I was completely myself’ and all her feelings towards Jarrod were real although her physical attributes were not (MTV 2012). There are at least two victims in this case of catfishing; the boy who is catfished by the girl and the person, like Shana, whose images, or parts of their identity stolen to create fake profiles.

The example of Melissa reveals a core feature of catfishing: the construction of identity with ambivalent implications. Whilst sharing an identity with others may bring ‘the comfort of belonging’ it can also lead ‘to the exclusion of others’ (Ledeneva 2018b: 213). Identity construction online involves creating ‘a new text with borrowed properties to meet other users’ expectations’ in order to feel like they belong in society (Kottemann 2015: 89). The moral ambiguity of catfishing is only one side of the story. The other is the normative ambivalence, whereby the catfish relies on the external expectations in creating a fake online identity but seeks recognition of ‘real me’ and satisfaction of internal expectations in a personal meeting. Partiality of self, online and offline, accounts for the ‘divisive identities’ it creates. Understanding catfishing in this context helps to explain how ‘multiple identities emerg[e] in complex societies’ (Ledeneva 2018a: 10). The internet becomes an ‘identity lab’ that enables users to create and ‘experiment with new selves’. People see that ‘attractive people are considered more desirable dating partners’ and therefore, to find love online they may present a false, or creative, accounting of themselves in order to feel more attractive (Toma and Hancock 2010: 335-7). This is evident in the first three seasons of Catfish: The TV Show. Out of thirty-seven episodes analysed by the author, the most cited reason for catfishing was ‘personal insecurities’ (42 percent). The Scandinavian informal practice janteloven sits in direct contrast to catfishing as it embodies the levelling principle, ‘one should never try to be more, try to be different’ thus rejecting the constructivist message of catfishing (Jakobsen 2018: 254).

The term catfishing was first coined in the documentary Catfish in 2010 (Joost and Schulman 2010). The documentary explains the origins of the term. In order to keep codfish fresh when it was being transported from Alaska to China, fisherman would add some catfish to the vat to ‘keep the cod agile’ (Joost and Schulman 2010). The documentary directors suggest that society needs catfish as ‘they keep you guessing, they keep you thinking, they keep you fresh’ (Joost and Schulman 2010). However, whilst the term may have been documented in 2010, practices of catfishing were found prior to this, at least since 2007, when the filming started. In a different context, the American reality television series To Catch a Predator (2004), broadcast between 2004 and 2007, has pointed to the practices of catfishing on internet. The show created fake online profiles of minors in order to catch adults that preyed on them.

Scholars have emphasised the significance of catfishing as a practice emerging around the mid 2000s, ‘a particular temporal moment in the life-cycle of neoliberal capitalism, the post-2008 financial crisis’ (Lovelock 2016: 214). Due to the rise of capitalism in the 1980s, technology in the 1990s and the recession after the millennium, ‘youth [has] stopped growing up’ and what was once ‘traditional markers of adulthood’ have become ‘delayed [and] disorderly’ causing adulthood to be ‘dramatically reimagined’ (Silva 2013: 6-8). The ‘good life’ has ‘become increasingly out of reach for the millennial generation who are represented within and addressed by Catfish: The TV Show’ (Lovelock 2016: 214). People feel excluded because they are not meeting the markers of the ‘good life,’ so they resort to catfishing as it allows them to alter their identities to make it appear as if they were succeeding and thus develop a sense of belonging.

Catfishing became increasingly universal and visible in society in the age of ‘fake news’ (Transparency International 2019). Popular culture outlets globally enrol on similar agendas. TV shows and media reports replicate Catfish: The TV Show (USA) in numerous spin-offs, including Catfish Colombia 2014 (Facebook 2015); Catfish Brasil 2016 (Facebook 2017); and Catfish Mexico: The TV Show 2018 (Facebook 2018). Moreover, evidence suggests that catfishing occurs in many African countries, such as Nigeria and Ghana (Ahmad 2018; Whitty and Buchanan 2016: 179). As practice, catfishing spreads through social networking sites, so it can be replicated in any country with sufficiently free access to the internet. An increase in scale of the practice has been facilitated by the ‘anonymity provided by most online spaces’ and the need for the younger generation to feel as if they belong (Toma and Hancock 2010: 335).

It is difficult to measure the exact number of catfishing incidences across the globe. As catfishing occurs within the private sphere it is likely to be underreported. Moreover, the number of fake accounts that exist on social networking sites do not necessarily equate to the number of instances of catfishing. Fake accounts can be used to commit fraud, impersonation, online romance scams or provide people with fake likes and followers, as well as serve state political agendas. An indirect way in which the scale of catfishing could be assessed quantitatively is by measuring the related practices, such as the online romance scam (which originates from catfishing). Qualitatively, it is essential, and may be more insightful, to use data on catfishing on order to indicate trends in the online practice. FBI report of internet crime shows that between the years 2014 to 2018, the number of instances of the online romance scam rose from 5,833 to 18,493 (Internet Crime Complaint Centre 2014, 2018). This shows that the number of incidences of online romance scams and therefore catfishing is increasing, despite increased visibility of the practice.

As catfishing has flourished, concerns about the practice have grown as well. Thus, the 2016 survey on the psychological impact of catfishing reveals that most participants were ‘affected negatively’ by the practice (Whitty and Buchanan 2016: 180). Social networking sites have begun to implement preventative measures in an attempt to stop catfishing. In 2020, the messaging platform Whatsapp has introduced a ‘catfish-busting photo tool’ which allows users to verify whether a person’s picture is legitimate (Keach 2019). Twitter has addressed catfishing in its user policy. Impersonation is a ‘violation of the Twitter Rules’ and anyone who poses as another person in a ‘confusing or deceptive manner’ may be permanently suspended (Twitter Inc. 2019). However, despite these measures, the future of catfishing appears bright. This is indicative of the growing world of cyberinformality and identity in cyberspace where online practices associated with bitcoin, hacktivism, follower buying are becoming increasingly prominent in society.

Entries in the online encyclopaedia linking to catfishing

• Follower buying (Global) ‎ (← links)

References

Ahmad, A. 2018 ‘How I set out to catch a romance scammer’, BBC, 19 November, www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46260729

Facebook.com. 2015. Catfish Colombia, www.facebook.com/pg/catfishcolombia/

Facebook.com. 2017. Catfish Brasil, www.facebook.com/pg/catfishbrasilmtv/

Facebook.com. 2018. Catfish Mexico, www.facebook.com/pg/CatfishMexOficial/

Hansen, C. (host). 2004. To Catch A Predator [TV series]. USA: MSMBC

Internet Crime Complaint Centre. 2014. 2014 Internet Crime Report, www.ic3.gov/media/annualreport/2014_IC3Report.pdf

Internet Crime Complaint Centre. 2018. 2018 Internet Crime Report, www.ic3.gov/media/annualreport/2018_IC3Report.pdf

Jakobsen, M. 2018. ‘Janteloven/Jantelagen’, in A. Ledeneva (ed.), The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality: Understand Social and Cultural Complexity Vol. 1. London: UCL Press: 254-9

Joost, H. and Schulman, A. (directors). 2010. Catfish [film]. USA: Relatively Media

Keach, S. 2019. ‘Chat’s Great: New WhatsApp features for 2020 – Dark Mode, self-deleting texts and catfish-busting photo tool’, The Sun, 27 December, www.thesun.co.uk/tech/10625579/

Kottemann, K. 2015. The Rhetoric of Deliberate Deception: What Catfishing Can Teach Us. PhD. Thesis. University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Ledeneva, A. 2018a. ‘Introduction: the informal view of the world – key changes and main findings of the Global Informality Project’, in A. Ledeneva (ed.), The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality: Understand Social and Cultural Complexity Vol. 1. London: UCL Press: 1-27

Ledeneva, A. 2018b. ‘Solidarity: The normative ambivalence of double standards: ‘us’ vs ‘them’, in A. Ledeneva (ed.), The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality: Understand Social and Cultural Complexity Vol. 1. London: UCL Press: 213-15

Lovelock, L. 2016. ‘Catching a Catfish: Constructing the “good” social media user in reality television’, Television & New Media, 18: 203-217

MTV. 2012. Catfish: The TV Show, Episode 5, Jarrod & Abby. USA: Catfish Picture Company

Silva, J. 2013. Coming up short: working-class adulthood in an age of uncertainty. New York: Oxford University Press

Toma, C. and Hancock, J. 2010. ‘Looks and lies: The role of physical attractiveness in online dating self-presentation and deception’, Communication Research, 37: 335-51

Transparency International. 2019. Fighting corruption in the age of “fake news”, https://www.transparency.org/en/news/fighting-corruption-in-the-age-of-fake-news

Twitter Inc. 2019. 15th transparency report: Increase in proactive enforcement on accounts, https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/twitter-transparency-report-2019.html

Whitty, M. and Buchanan, T. 2016. ‘The online dating romance scam: The psychological impact on victims – both financial and non-financial’, Criminology & Criminal Justice, 16: 176-94