This section of the blog is dedicated to gaining insight to the phenomenon of internet vigilantism, the power of community hivemind, and who has the power to direct or harness this power.

Here are but a few examples:
In February 2009, an incident involving the posting on YouTube of a video clip in which a domestic cat, named Dusty, was beaten and tortured by a 14-year-old boy calling himself “Timmy”. After about 30,000 viewings, this clip and the account were removed by YouTube as a violation of their terms of service. Members of an online message board investigated the incident, and by extrapolating from the poster’s YouTube user name and the background in the video, they identified the abuser as Kenny Glenn of Lawton, Oklahoma. As a result of these complaints, the Comanche County Sheriff’s Department investigated the incident, and two suspects were arrested. Dusty survived the abuse, and was placed in the care of a local veterinarian.

In 2005 in South Korea, bloggers targeted a woman who refused to clean up when her dog defecated on the floor of a Seoul subway car, labeling her “Dog Poop Girl” (rough translation into English). Within days, she had been identified by internet vigilantes, and much of her personal information was exposed on the World Wide Web in an attempt to punish her for the offense. The story received mainstream attention when it was widely reported in South Korean media. The public humiliation led the woman to quit her university, according to reports.

Perverted Justice is a well-known example of an anti-pedophile organization that aims to expose and convict adults who, using email or web sites, solicit minors in order to commit child sexual abuse. They often collaborate with television crews. Some freely hosted blogs claim to expose real or potential child sex offenders.

Another initiative, Predator Hunter, headed by Wendell Kreuth, aims to track down and expose the pornography-related activities of alleged ‘sexual predators’. In 2002, Kreuth disclosed details of his activities in an interview with Minnesota Public Radio.