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.
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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.
/.ers did to Alan Ralsky. Mobs are one vengeful ex-wife, one crooked real estate agent away from devestating the wrong guy.
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.