Most people have embraced the internet in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, shifting their ordinary daily activities from physical spaces to an online environment. Few people catch up with friends in restaurants, bars or clubs these days, instead they organize drinking parties online, listen to sets played at clubs remotely and generally distract themselves from reality through a range of entertainment that has been adjusted for the web.
One activity that has been attracting more attention recently is the act of shaming others online. The spread of the new coronavirus has given netizens in Japan who were already quick to point out bad behavior a new level of online authority in trying to right perceived wrongs.
Such users are being dubbed jishuku keisatsu, or the self-restraint police. As it implies, this refers to a user who shames individuals, stores or other entities that fail to follow government recommendations in response to COVID-19. While much of this has played out on social media, it has also spilled over into the physical world, with some people putting up signs on storefronts in the capital in the hope of embarrassing places they think are still operating as normal.