Comment we haven't met the enemy, but he is us (Score 1) 273
The problem with Internet vigilante activity is the size and anonymity of the posse. In non-electronic frontier justice, the mob knew its own members, its target and usually its consequences. Not so, online.
Consider, say, perverted-justice.com campaigns, or what /.ers did to Alan Ralsky. Mobs are one vengeful ex-wife, one crooked real estate agent away from devestating the wrong guy.
Moreover, where's the incentive to call a job finished? In-person vigilantes face certain limits of time, space and scale that serve as checks on their hostility, in addition to the fact that it's just harder to hurt a guy whose face you've seen. And even then, there've been no shortage of abuses.
Online mobs are inherently imbalaced, and can result in the equivalent of beheading people for misdemeanors.
Consider, say, perverted-justice.com campaigns, or what
Moreover, where's the incentive to call a job finished? In-person vigilantes face certain limits of time, space and scale that serve as checks on their hostility, in addition to the fact that it's just harder to hurt a guy whose face you've seen. And even then, there've been no shortage of abuses.
Online mobs are inherently imbalaced, and can result in the equivalent of beheading people for misdemeanors.
