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The brutal killing of a famous lion from the Zimbabwe National Park has caused massive outrage on the Web. Anger fell upon the culprit of the crime – the American dentist Walter James Palmer. However, the crowd, hungry for retribution, virtual or real, has nothing to do with real justice.
In order to “legally” kill a handsome lion with an unusual black mane, he was tricked out of the reserve, where shooting animals is prohibited. After that, the hunter, American dentist Walter James Palmer, shot Cecil from a crossbow and pursued the beast for another 40 hours until he finished him off. This brutal murder caused a flurry of outrage on the Internet. Users did not limit themselves to an emotional discussion / condemnation of what happened and demands to punish Palmer to the fullest extent of the law – they undertook to administer the court themselves. Online justice is spreading more and more, and these spontaneous campaigns cannot but cause great concern.1.
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Reason for invading someone else’s life
Users immediately invaded the privacy of the accused, his family and his subordinates. They found out everything about him, including the composition of the family, and published all this information on the Web. They interfered in his business (Palmer’s clinic is already closed), wrote so many angry comments on professional networks that Palmer’s profile was deleted in all communities. Multiple threats of physical harm appeared on Twitter and on Palmer’s Facebook page. And finally, the inscription “Burn in hell” appeared on the doors of his already closed clinic. In other words, users moved from online accusations to real punishment. And not only Palmer himself, but at the same time his family and his employees who lost their jobs.
A familiar tactic that has been used time and again in various cyberbullying campaigns, notes Vox author Max Fischer. It usually aims at two main goals: to deprive the object of general indignation of the livelihoods and to cause him mental anguish through accusations and intimidation. But if in the case of Palmer his act certainly deserves blame, then in other cases the situation is not at all so unambiguous. The journalist recalls a high-profile online bullying campaign called “Gamegate” (similar to “Watergate”)2. Its driving force has been the rejection of the growing role of women in high technology. And the most popular sub-forum (recently closed) of the famous social site Reddit was called “I hate fat” (FatPeopleHate) and brought together 150 people who competed in mocking overweight people. The problem is that the online crowd is very arbitrary in its judgment of guilt or innocence. So arbitrary that one day any of us could become its victim.
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Motives – revenge and hatred
In fact, in such campaigns, the main thing is not the punishment for a real offense, but a justified opportunity to give vent to the hatred and thirst for revenge of its individual participants. Sometimes victims may deserve punishment, but most of the time they don’t. But, in fact, the crowd does not care. Her motives are completely different.
The formal justice system bases its decisions on laws and precedents. It is a thoughtful and well-thought-out mechanism. Yes, it also has its flaws, but at least it is designed as a fair and reasonable procedure for both the accused and the prosecutor.
Mob justice is based on the collective emotions of all who happen to fall into this maelstrom. It is based on their momentary experiences. In this “court” the most valued are those “testimonies” that are easy to share on social networks – as a rule, confirming the already established opinion of the Internet crowd. This justice can easily convict even the innocent, because there is no clear definition of the concepts of “guilty” and “not guilty”, as well as the idea of proportionality of punishment. In fact, anyone can become the target of bullying.
The crowd does not at all strive for justice in the highest sense, one that contributes to the promotion of the public good. Her goal is revenge.
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Bullying doesn’t need proof
But even if a really unworthy person, such as Palmer, becomes the object of the wrath of the crowd, this is still not justice. Justifying bullying or not giving it a serious meaning, we only help this phenomenon to take root. The consequences are all the more sad because more and more people will consider such lynching quite acceptable.
One online campaign spurs on the next, helping bullyers organize themselves, finding platforms like Reddit or 4chan where they fan the flames of hatred, develop and spread new ways of virtual harassment. There are more and more such “schools of hate” on the Internet.
This is a dangerous trend. The crowd judges according to its own understanding who is and is not a criminal, for example, a woman working in the field of high technologies, or a believer in the “wrong” god. Any one of us may someday be accused of such a sin, and even if the crowd is eager to punish truly criminal acts, it is all too easy to go down the wrong path and make a mistake.
Shortly after the Boston Marathon bombing, Reddit users believed the attack was carried out by a young man named Sanil Tripathi. Photographs from the marathon showed a man who looked like Tripathi, and he himself had suspiciously disappeared. The anger of the users fell upon the Tripathi family, hundreds of threats rained down on them, his sister received 3 calls that night only between 4 and 58 hours.
A few weeks later, Sanil’s relatives, who survived a lot of bullying both on the Internet and in reality, learned that the young man had committed suicide shortly before the attack. Reddit users apologized, but it was too late. The “justice” of the crowd has already been done.
1 See the vox.com news site for more details.
2 Gamergate is an online scandal that began in 2014. The object of persecution of users was the game developer from New York Zoe Quinn. She was accused of having sex with computer game journalists in order to get positive reviews for her game Depression Quest. Zoe was subjected to insults and threats of rape and murder, which forced her to move to Canada. Following her, the well-known feminist and blogger Anita Sargsyan, who defended Zoe, was subjected to insults and threats.