Alex Lightman and Rachel Coleman of h+ Magazine crafted a splendid article about how “Netizen Detectives” are helping bring accountability to foolish actions that people post on the internet. “There is a new movement being fueled by emotions ranging from revulsion to rage pulsing through the veins of the internet. It’s a 21st century update to the old school lynch mobs. Thousands have joined in and believe it’s an efficient way to make criminals answer to the netizens.”
The article highlights the following example of the the “Kitten Killer of Hangzhou” to illustrate the emergence of 21st Century Lynch Mobs. Apparently, in February of 2006 a woman posted a video on YouTube of her purportedly snuffing the life out of a kitten with her stiletto shoes. Not too long after the video was uploaded the following happened:
Photo: ChinaDaily
“Enraged masses [of Chinese Netizens] mobilized online to find [the Kitten Killer of Hangzhou...] Less than a week later, volunteer cyber sleuths were able to discover her location by analyzing the background of the video. Then they matched the shoes worn in the video to an online purchase. With this information they uncovered her identity and address. These details were posted online and she was attacked with thousands of phone calls and threats. She was mercilessly shamed, lost her job, and was forced to post a video apology online where she acknowledged her actions and asked for forgiveness.”*
[Source: * h+ Magazine Search (and Destroy) Engines.]
Acknowledgements: Story tip from Jon Cog and Disnfo.com
Comments
@ 19:10
Wow, I find this really scarey. Not only the fact that this woman was harrasssed and stakled in the real world but also online. What she did was definately wrong, but it scares me that there are people out there that are able to track you through the smallest things (background,shoes and where purchased). These incidents I believe highlight the fact that we are never annoynomous online. It also makes me wonder how many of these people who were able to ‘track’ her online use their abilites online to find out personal information of strangers for their own benefit.
Lynch mobs were never a good thing in the past so they are definately not a good thing today - the best thing is for the laws to ‘catch up’ with what is happening online and give the appropraite punishment.