Has the Internet Just Become One Giant Lynch Mob?

A couple of days ago I read a rather absurd story on MSNBC.com about some poor sap that will probably lose their job because of an angry internet mob.   What was this guy’s (BTW, I am willing to bet that this entire incident would not have happened if everyone involved knew that theconner is actually a young woman) crime?  Was it discovered that she was a Nazi war criminal?  Did a youtube video surface featuring her abusing his cat?   Was she exposed as a leader of some type of child pornography ring?

Nope.

Instead, this person, now known as “theconner” or “Cisco Fatty” published the following tweet on twitter: “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”

Okay, so this might have not been the most sensitive and intelligent thing to say during these tough economic jobs in which some people would be happy for any type of job, especially one with a “fatty paycheck.”   In addition, and this should probably be filed away as a best practice for the rest of us, if you are going to vent about a company that describes itself as “the leading supplier of networking equipment and network management for the Internet,” then the internet is probably not the best medium to voice your concerns.

Now, I really can’t fault the apparent Cisco employee, Tim Levad, who responded with the following tweet of his own: “Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.” After all, who wouldn’t want to protect their company from a bad hire that might cause more work to be dumped on them. However, the ensuing internet lynch mob that formed and tried to Cisco Fatty’s real life personal information do not share this alibi. Powered by an enormous case of Groupthink, this lynch mob quickly forced Cisco Fatty to delete her twitter account and delete hundreds of threats of violence on her new blog appropriately entitled Dear Internet Superheroes

Am I completely against using the power of the internet and its powerful social communities?   No way.  The web is full of examples of large groups of people helping complete strangers in their time of need. Furthermore, internet mobs can be very useful in identifying and stopping people committing real crimes. Check out this article describing 8 Awesome Cases of Internet Vigilantism My favorite example of this happened when a fourteen year old in Oklahoma, posted a youtube video portraying the abuse of his cat, Dusty. Web detectives quickly outed this trouble teen via his Facebook account, and the proper authorities were notified.  Unfortuantely, I am willing to bet that even after the proper authorities took over the case, the internet mob authorities continued their work and probably crossed the line and harassed him.

But in the Cisco Fatty case, there was no victim that needed to be protected, no criminal that needed to be brought to justice.  Instead, a young lady was venting about her possible new job (let’s face it, EVERYONE complains about their job).  No mob was needed here to ensure justice.  Rather, what was needed was someone to step in and stop the madness before it went as far as it did.

At least back in the day, members of lynch mobs had to get off their fat asses and actually meet the person face to face (or sometimes face to mask) in order to terrorize them.  Now all they need is some limited computer abilities and a social network to conduct their dirty work.