Why We Should All Fear The Righteous Online Mob

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/27/justin-sacco-online-vigilantism_n_4505452.html

With the all-seeing shame army standing at the ready to denounce and attack anyone at any time, debating differing ideas could give way to exchanging watered-down platitudes that garner mob approval and everyone can “like.”

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The ruthless public shaming people like Sacco face online may dissuade other people from any speech that diverges, even slightly, from the mob’s black-and-white moral code. Dr. Claire Hardaker, a lecturer at Lancaster University researching aggression online, points out that even a "well-meaning" mob judges fault in a simplistic, inconsistent and highly emotional fashion. Gut reactions win, then give way to extreme responses.

Though the menaces may claim they're just exercising their right to free speech, they're actually muting the voices of anyone who dares cross the mob's "party line." For the targets of violent Internet vigilantism, the physical and digital can meld in ways that jeopardize peoples' livelihoods, or even their safety.


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I see this a lot. Even on DU