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Internet Vigilantism: To do or Not to do?

When thinking of internet vigilantism, I instantly think of “Don’t F**K with Cats” The Netflix series. In the series, an online serial killer is posting videos of himself committing crimes on youtube. The police were having no luck finding this killer at all. In one of the early videos he had posted a video of himself murdering kittens. Obviously no one liked that, hence the name. Internet sluethes, or vigeilanties decided to take it upon themselves to try and crack the case. In the end their information worked and the killer was brought to justice.

There is also the aspect of using the internet to hunt pedophiles. They are like internet vigilantes in a way. They draw the bad guys out of their houses and catch them in the act. It isn’t exactly internet shaming but having their faces now blasted on the tv, and internet as well as a criminal record counts for something! At least that’s my thought anyway.

As for keyboard Warriers though, I think that sometimes they go too far. Yes, some people are complete jerks and need to be called out for the crap they are doing online, but sometimes people are just having a lapse in judgement, or a bad day and they act out in public. Then those videos get posted online for everyone to shame. I mean yes, sometimes they do deserve some of it , but sometimes people go way too far. I don’t think people’s lives should become ruined just because they made a dumb choice. The thing about the internet and its sleuths is that its almost worldwide. In China it’s called renrou sousou, which translates as ‘human flesh search’. China has the world’s largest internet population – 250 million people. thats China alone.

Yes sometimes online vigilantism has benefits but there has been cases of misidentification such as “Five teenagers allegedly kicked a stray ‘village’ cat, injuring it so badly that it had to be put down. Netizens found the cat’s attackers and posted their information and identities online – but they got the wrong teenagers, and those accused were found to be innocent.” These misidentifications can ruin an innocent person’s life. So I guess all I can say is, if you are going to be an online vigilante just make sure you have all the correct information before you ruin someone’s life.

One Comment

  • Brynn

    Hi Kacey! I think you make a great point here about how digital vigilantism can be really beneficial in the world today, because as things are changing and technology is growing, it can be helpful to have so many people online with different perspectives and abilities to bring justice. However, I agree with you that when there are so many people online, sometimes they get it wrong. We have to be able to find that line between justice and bullying, and we also need to be aware that not everything online is as it seems. I think teaching media literacy will become more and more important in schools to help students decipher situations like this.

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