Mob Rule on China's Internet 129
Alien54 writes to mention an International Herald Tribune article about the growing phenomenon in China known as internet hunting; Using the web to track down individuals who have violated social more or broken the law. From the article: "In recent cases, people have scrutinized husbands suspected of cheating on their wives, fraud on Internet auction sites, the secret lives of celebrities and unsolved crimes. One case that drew a huge following involved the poisoning of a Tsinghua University student - an event that dates to 1994, but was revived by curious strangers after word spread on the Internet that the only suspect in the case had been questioned and released. Even a recent scandal involving a top Chinese computer scientist dismissed for copying an American processor design came to light in part because of Internet hunting, with scores of online commentators raising questions about the project and putting pressure on the scientist's sponsors to look into allegations about intellectual property theft."
This sounds like... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Must be mistaken... (Score:3, Insightful)
Cultural Revolution. This has some faint echoes.
This is an example of why ... (Score:5, Insightful)
You hear calls for vigilante activity a lot, on the net and in the real world. And it's got lots of emotional appeal. But it always turns into mob rule, with absolutely no mechanism for protecting the innocent.
Mobsters (Score:3, Insightful)
How is that "mob" ruling anything? The people in the public investigated publicly known events. Then they used the usual power organized people have to pressure people who listen to them. Where's the "rule"? Where, indeed, is the "mob"?
That story is interesting mainly in the power regular people are accruing in China, a Communist tyranny that favors totalitarianism. I guess if you're a Chinese Communist powermonger, the Internet and people using its open society represent "mob rule', because tyrants see the world only in the simplest, most polarized power structures.
Maybe Alien54 and the IHT are learning more from Xin Hua, China's official propaganda publisher [xinhua.cn], and quoting the best lessons from the New York Times.
Re:No clear voice of Moral Authority (Score:2, Insightful)
A morally good member of a particular faith that will choose to get the good out of it and those with poor morality would get the worst out of their religion. In the end, it makes no difference.
Re:No clear voice of Moral Authority (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Mobsters (Score:2, Insightful)
Wait, did we read the same article?
Someone under a pseudo-name posts accusations, a bunch of people respond and get all riled up and encourages more people to join them in their cause. A name is given and random people from all over dig up information about the guy and other random people in real life start harassing the guy and his family. All this without concrete evidence, they're just going by someone's words on the internet. Even when the original poster tries to call things off, they ignore him and keep going. A large, disorderly group of people attacking someone. That is a mob.
Re:Mobsters (Score:2, Insightful)
The "mob rule" is the group of thousands applying their own brand of justice, using neither trial, jury, nor judge. I don't know about you, but when I hear "mob rule", I think torches and pitchforks, which is essentially what happened.
It's not even like adultery is even a crime (or is it ... ). Sure, he might be a jerk for cuckolding someone (and notice that even the alleged cuckold has rescinded his accusations), but does the punishment here really fit the crime? I don't think it does in this case, and furthermore, I think this penchant for taking things too far is a hallmark of "mob rule" (as is the lack of due process, which perhaps you don't think is important?).
Re:No clear voice of Moral Authority (Score:3, Insightful)
That doesn't mean that it would make much difference in the large however: the most frustrating aspect of religion is the number of people who use it as sheep's clothing while being wolves in their day to day lives. Worse, many of the atrocities that have been committed historically were motivated by religious groups fear at things they did not agree with.
I don't think religion is the panacea that you are looking for.
Hey! (Score:1, Insightful)
Speaking of which, is Ralsky still getting the junkmail he deserves, or has he moved recently?